


Lost: Outside my Universe and Beyond the Stars

by HappyRea



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-02-20 00:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 94,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2409170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyRea/pseuds/HappyRea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy Smith is a geek on holiday in Cardiff, she spent a lot of money at the Doctor Who experience and fainted while walking through the bay. She woke up surrounded by Jack, Suzie, Owen and Tosh. After talking to her Jack agreed that she could join  the Torchwood team but they both agree that she is not allowed to change the future. Three months later, Gwen joins and the show starts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Where the hell am I?

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is it.
> 
> The big one.
> 
> The one we've all been waiting for!
> 
> In all honesty I've been working on this story for years and with all of series 1 complete and my mate Jeremy editing I finally feel like it's ready to be shown to the world. Please let me know what you think.

Lucy walked through Cardiff on her Doctor Who tour, she walked down the plass grinning up at the water tower. Her new signed DVDs were in her dalek bag, which was also new. While she had another plastic bag with a few more DVDs and some posters, she had saved for ages and spent loads of money at the shop after the Doctor Who museum, her friends – if you could really call them friends, more like people she knew and got along with - called her a geek and she never claimed that she wasn’t. Her was camera out taking pictures of as many of the important shots as she could, planning to fill an entire album with them with her photos next to shots from the episode. Once she got a picture of her by the tower she would go down to the ‘tourist centre’ and get pictures at the memorial that had been put up there before going to a coffee shop for Ianto.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

Her vision went black and she didn’t remember collapsing until she woke up with familiar looking faces around her.

“Holy hell” She cursed sitting up quickly, “Sorry.” She added “It’s just... I am such a big fan, are you filming?” They all looked at each other, “I don’t see any cameras.” She looked around them trying to spot a TV camera.  
“Owen,” The leader said, “is she ok?”  
“Well she looks fine but it could be concussion. No other symptoms though”  
“You call him Owen when you’re not filming? Odd” She said grabbing her bag and pulling out her notebook, turning to the first blank page quickly. “Yeah err, you can just ignore the fanfic and can I have your autographs please?”  
“Fanfic?” The Asian woman asked,  
“Err yeah. I mean it’s not brilliant stuff just a couple of one shots and I’m working on a full length one. Well I was working on a full length one. Oh and bits of a Harry Potter crossover – I was bored and I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Just forget I ever said that. But please can I have your autograph?” She said as she stopped rambling and trying not to blush and turn completely pink.  
The man in the WWII coat was looking through her dalek bag and staring at the DVDs, “What are these?”  
“Signed DVDs; Doctor Who series one to four, the specials and a bunch of classics, and Torchwood 1-3.” She replied confused, “Listen if you don’t want to give me an autograph that’s fine but can I ask one question?”  
“Go for it” The tall leader shrugged hoping to learn more about her.  
“Why are you filming with Suzie? Are you doing a prequel cause I personally would love to know more of Suzie’s role in Torchwood. Plus you get to see more of the others, we all missed them. Especially Ianto, it would mean Ianto was alive.”  
“What do you know about Torchwood? How do you know Suzie’s name? And what do you mean Ianto’s dead?”  
She looked at the team who were gazing at her, eyes demanding answers. “You are fucking kidding me. This has got to be a joke right, this is one of those hidden camera things to see what people will believe.”  
“Suzie take her inside.” He ordered, “She knows too much and I want to know where these DVDs came from.”  
“From the shop. I bought them from the shop at the end of the experience, I have the receipt in my bag as well as a couple of posters and books.” She continued to look at them “You’re not joking are you? Doctor Owen Harper? Toshiko Sato? Suzie Costello? Ianto Jones? Captain Jack Harkness, the Face of Boe?” She grabbed the DVDs out of Jack’s hand while he was still in shock, “You can’t see these, well Jack can see series one and two, bits of, but no way can you see anymore than that.”  
“Says who?”  
“Who do you think?” She replied raising an eyebrow.  
“Why can’t we see them?” Suzie asked  
“Spoilers.” She giggled.  
“How do you know those names?” Jack asked, “No one here knows that name.”  
“This really is real isn’t it? Fucking rift.” At that point the shock of everything and what had happened caught up with her. Lucy turned completely white and collapsed.  
“Shit” Owen cursed.  
“We need to continue this story inside. Get her into the hub and one of the cells. Keep the stuff in her bag but don’t look at it.” Jack said decisively.  
Owen picked her up in a fireman’s lift, “She’s too light Jack.” He carried her down the plass and into the hub.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

She woke up in one of the cells her bag in there with her, at first she was confused as to where she was and then she remembered. Somehow she had changed universe and ended up inside the Whovian world. She whooped with excitement at the possibility of seeing all the aliens and maybe even seeing different worlds, allowing herself to think about the good side of things and not what she had left behind.  
Ianto grinned as he heard the sounds of joy coming from the cells. “She sounds happy enough, not the normal reaction when people wake up in the cells” He commented, “Do you want me to get her some food? I’m going to order pizza for us anyway.”  
Jack nodded and Ianto descended the stairs.  
“Hi.”  
“Hi” She smiled at him, “you’re really real aren’t you Ianto Jones? I've not walked onto an extreme practical joke and a TV set have I?”  
“No, this is real. I’m ordering pizza what do you want?”  
“Um, ham and mushroom please.” She replied, “Soo any idea when I’ll be let out?”  
“That’s up to Jack not me.” Ianto said “I don’t have any say in the matter, I just tidy up after them.”  
“Bollocks. You do loads more than that Ianto, don’t play yourself down. You might be in the background but that doesn’t mean you do nothing, they’d be surprised how difficult it is to live without you. God you’re Ianto Jones, do you know how many people love you in my world?” Ianto was bemused but let her continue to ramble. “Everyone who loves Torchwood is a Ianto fan, Jack is in a close second in terms of popularity. It’s like the Doctor is my hero, but you, you’re so human and...” She sighed and then rested her forehead against the glass door “Listen I don’t know how to help her or even if I should, but I promise you when I am free of this I will stand with you every step of the way. If I am in a position where I can help I will help, I promise. You deserve your second chance and I know how much it would mean to you.”  
He nodded and went slightly pale when her realised who she was talking about, “Thank you” he replied, “I’ll order your pizza and add a chocolate pudding as well.”  
“You really are a lifesaver.” Lucy grinned, going back to leaning against the wall the serious moment over. “I’ve gone a whole 3 hours without chocolate and I fainted twice. I need my fix.”  
He started to walk away but she called him back, “Ianto?” He turned round and raised an eyebrow in question, “Thanks” the dark haired girl said simply.  
“For what?” The welsh man asked  
“Just thanks” She shrugged and smiled.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

He didn’t say anything and left walking back up the stairs to Jack and the rest of the team.  
“Maybe we should just talk to her Jack. I really don’t think she’s a problem.”  
“She knows things others shouldn’t know.” He replied  
“If it’s a TV program like she says then that would make sense. Maybe watch an episode to let her prove it.” He shrugged, he knew he didn’t have to explain what he had said as Jack would have been watching, he could only hope that he didn’t ask what she had meant when she offered to help. “It’s not my job to tell you what to do.” He added, aware that he had potentially crossed the line.  
“No” Jack agreed “it’s not.” He spoke in a way that meant the conversation was over, Ianto shrugged and left the room, leaving a mug of coffee on his bosses desk.  
He continued to watch her before suddenly getting up and saying. “I’m going to speak to her.” He passed the rest of the team as he walked down to the cells and he could tell that they were all talking about this anomaly of a girl and what it would mean if she really had come from a different world. Tosh was busy looking at different fantasy websites trying to get as much knowledge as possible, while Owen was moaning about the extra work this was going to give him whilst also making notes about things that may be different in the other universe, both medical and technological. Susie wasn't saying anything but instead was working with more force than was strictly necessary.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

“Hi Jack.” Lucy smiled at him, “Come to interrogate me.”  
“If it’s true why aren’t you devastated?” He asked straight away.  
“Because I have nothing left for me anymore, I mean there’s Becky, but she’ll be fine without me. She has been for a while now." Her voice was serious and she sighed at the thought of what in her original universe. But she shrugged it off and smiled at Jack, her voice became more excited as she continued.  
"I’ve dreamt of travelling across the stars for so many years now Jack. I don’t want to run and never look back, although it might sound like it and it’s very tempting. I just want to see everything the universe has to offer, I want to look out at the different planets and see different suns in the sky. I want to stand on a planet that doesn’t have green grass, or a blue sky. To stand in the middle of a frozen world. To see different constellations. To ride the solar wave and finish anywhere.”  
Her eyes sparkled and Jack couldn’t help but see the similarities between her and the Doctor; the thrill of the universe. There was something else hidden in her eyes as well but before he had time to think about it she continued and it disappeared.  
“I want to see cultures that are completely different to mine, to gaze at something no other human will. Or won’t for centuries to come. I want to do everything possible. And here, I can’t travel across worlds, I know that, I’m only in Cardiff after all. But to know that I still have the chance, no matter how small, of seeing other people from different cultures, the chance to know what thousands, millions, of others don’t; to know that when I look into the sky there might be people on other planets doing the same thing and knowing that the universe is teeming with life. Let me stay.”  
He stayed silent and she continued to plead her case, “I won’t tell you what happens in the stories I know for certain, I’ll keep the timeline as similar as possible. I swear, I’ll let you lock up my DVDs so no one will know your past or any more about the Doctor than you want them to. I want my chance Captain. I need my chance to fly.”  
“How much of my future do you know?” He asked.  
She sighed and shut her eyes trying to work out what to tell him to dissuade him, “Bad Wolf, Gray, Boe. I don’t know everything, but I know enough. There are 31 Torchwood episodes, another 10 due to come out in a couple of weeks that I know the rough story line for. I’m not saying I’m going to be the best alien hunter you’ve ever met or even if I’ll be a good one. But I am asking for you to give me a chance and if I suck at it then help me find somewhere to live in this world. Help me find a life. But let me keep my memories. Let me know that I am sharing this world with other species and with people who have travelled through time and space. Please”  
He thought for a bit then nodded, “Ok, but I want to see the episodes with me in it, the ones that have already happened in my personal timeline. I’ll bring out another safe for you to put them in and I won’t know the code. That way no one can see what they shouldn’t.” He opened the cell door and she smiled at him before saying shyly.  
“Err, can I still have that autograph?”  
Jack laughed, a proper laugh that was rarely heard. “Maybe when you earn your place here. By the way what's your name?”  
She laughed as well and walked out of the cell and with Jack into the main hub. "Lucy" She replied, "Lucy Smith"  
"Nice to meet you Miss Smith."  
"You too Captain Harkness"

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

“Should I do the introductions, or do you already know?” Jack asked.  
“I know,” she replied, “But I don’t know all of the hub,” She turned to look all around her and saw Myfwany soar above them. “God she’s gorgeous, can I meet her?”  
Tosh laughed as she joined them, “You don’t want to meet us properly but the dinosaur you do.”  
“Look at her though, she’s stunning and real and alive in the 21st Century.” Lucy replied still following the flight of the Pterdactron.  
“Maybe later.” Jack said as Ianto appeared with the take out. "Lucy this is everyone, everyone this is Lucy" There was a mutterings of hello from the rest of Torchwood before Jack continued “First we need to work out what we are going to do with you.”  
“Well I’ve got nothing apart from clothes on my back and the stuff in my bag. And I can’t imagine them being useful, especially as they need to be locked up. I suppose I’ll need somewhere to live, a job, a life... everything.”  
Ianto put the pizzas down on the table as he sat down. “I’ve got a spare room, you can have that.”  
She looked up at him, determined to work out if he was being serious. “Really?”  
“Yeah, I won’t charge you rent not until things get settled down, but you’ll have to help with keeping it clean and tidy and the cooking.”  
“I’m a decent cook” She offered.  
Ianto looked at Jack, “Seems to me that’s the best option, at least until she sorts herself out and is able to stand on her own two feet.”  
"I might have some clothes that will fit you." Tosh offered and Susie made a non committal sound of agreement.  
"Thanks." Lucy smiled at them, "I mean they probably won't be my kind of clothes, because Tosh manages to look stunning in these dresses and Susie's bigger than me. But I'll take anything offered, I'll go clothes shopping later on in the week to try and get the essentials; underwear, jeans, t-shirts, hoodies - that kind of thing."  
Tosh smiled and blushed a bit at the compliment that Lucy gave her but privately agreed that her clothes wouldn't suit the new girl.  
Jack thought about it then nodded, “Ok, and I’ll give you a job here for now. I figure you’re acting pretty well with the whole changing universe thing, that Torchwood might just be the place for you. You can stay and work here for a few months and then I’ll rethink it through with you. ”  
“Thank you Captain” Lucy said sincerely, “it’s more than I could imagine.”  
“I don’t want you going out into the field for a while though, not until you're trained with a gun to a decent level at least. So until then you can stay here with Ianto while we go out and help him with the archives.”  
Lucy shrugged, “Sounds fine to me. I wasn’t expecting to be completely thrown into the deep end, although the rift seems to have done a good enough job at that. Am I only helping out Ianto or do you want me to help the others too?”

Jack looked at the rest of the team waiting to hear what they had to say, Suzie was the first to speak. “I’m part the way through research on the glove so I don’t need any help until I’ve finished that. I want to get that done myself – it’s fascinating.”  
Lucy gave a small nod of acceptance knowing that meant she probably had a few weeks until Gwen joined the picture and she knew what was going to happen.  
Tosh on the other hand shrugged, “Sure you can help me. I’m not sure how much you’ll understand of the complex stuff...” She paused for Lucy to respond.  
“Almost certainly nothing, but if it helps you to tell me then do so anyway. I don't mind being a sounding board.”  
“You’ll need to be trained up on how to use the system anyway as well as basic things like how to hack into other people’s computers, CCTV, Crimnet – which is the police software. And then once you can do that I’ll get you hacking into the government. Nothing too complex but enough that you won’t need to ask me every time you need something done.”  
Lucy couldn’t help but give a weary smile, “Only the basic stuff then.”  
Tosh gave a nervous laugh. “Well it is basic.”  
“Only to you Tosh.” Jack laughed, “But it is stuff that you’ll need to know, Lucy, so make sure you listen.”  
“Well I’m not sure how much use you’ll be to me.” Owen admitted, “Unless you want to tidy up after me, in which case be my guest.”  
“No thanks” Lucy retorted knowing she needed to be straight with Owen from the start. He was a nice guy but completely sarcastic and she planned to make sure he knew where the line was from the beginning. “I’ve had enough of cleaning up after people to last me a life time. And that was for people I loved as well, not sarcastic doctors with bad bedside manners.”  
Owen smirked at her, “Well, new girl. I think you might fit in after all. Although if you’re going to be helping the tea-boy then you’re pretty much the cleaner’s assistant aren’t you.”  
“Hell no! Ianto was introduced as the archivist not tea-boy. He only clears up after you because you’re still a petulant child who hasn’t learnt to pick up his toys. And my name is Lucy – learn to use it.”

The doctor looked like he was going to reply but Jack stepped in. “Ok children, let’s continue this later. Lucy, first you need a full physical. Owen, once you've done it, I want a comparison with our DNA and data to see if it differs, something like that is going to be of vital importance in the future. Everyone else get back on with your work. Lucy we’ll do this now and in a few days time just so we can make sure we have the right data as a baseline. The travelling through the rift may cause it to be different to your normal. If the results are too different we'll do another one a week after the second. I don't make any assumptions on my teams health, ok?”  
“Is this in the med bay?” Lucy asked slightly nervous, “Because that’s not exactly private.” She pulled awkwardly on the sleeves of her hoodie trying to hide as much of herself as possible.  
“I’ll stick up the curtain so no one can see in.” Owen said with a shrug, although immediately making a mental note that she was so uncomfortable with the idea - the last time he had seen a reaction like hers at the idea of a medical examination was when he was a student doctor and the patient in question had been self-harming for years. He hoped this wasn't the case now, but he couldn't help but remember how light she was when he carried her into the hub. “Don’t worry, it’s confidential between the two of us. Jack's the only other person who can get into the medical records and he only does that if it an emergency and I'm unable to. I'm only able to tell him anything if you let me, confidential means confidential.”  
“I’ll only look at it if I absolutely need to.” Jack said when Lucy looked wearily up at him, “I’ve never looked at Suzie’s or Tosh’s and I’ve only seen Ianto’s once. Don’t worry.”  
Lucy nodded, “Ok.” She took a deep breath, “Ok, let’s do it now before I change my mind and decide I don’t want to be part of Torchwood after all.”  
“I’d need your med record even if you decided not to stay with Torchwood” Jack said seriously, understanding how worried she was about this but made sure she knew that there was no choice. “So I could set it up in the real world and so Owen could compare yours with someone else’s. We have no information on the difference between worlds, and we need to know of any potential differences just for your safety if nothing else.”  
“Great. So just to be clear I have no choice about having a full medical.” Lucy said sarcastically  
"Nope," Owen agreed before leading Lucy into the med bay and putting the screen up so no one else could see.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"So before I start is there anything you want to tell me?" Owen asked Lucy seriously as she sat awkwardly on the side of the bed.  
Lucy shrugged, "I dunno."  
"Nothing you want to tell me? That I'm going to find out about anyway..." He said carefully not looking at her, while he got everything set up.  
She stayed quiet and Owen could tell she was trying to work up the courage to try and say something. He sat next to her, putting things back down on the tray and looked at her seriously.  
"I may be a bit of a sarcastic twat but I'm a damn good doctor - although I prefer it when my patients are already dead. Confidential means confidential, I'm not going to tell anyone what I learn from this, unless it is absolutely needed. That would only be if you were dying or something like that. And I would hope that in those moments you wouldn't really give a shit."  
"I've got some scars." Lucy said quietly  
"Self inflicted?" Owen replied also quietly, "Nothing shameful in it if they are, we all struggled at some point in our lives."  
Lucy gave a small harsh laugh, "Let's just say I didn't have the best upbringing and leave it at that."  
"My mum kicked me out on my 16th birthday" Owen said as he got off the bed and picked up the different medical instruments again. "Hoodie off, I need to get your blood pressure and a blood sample."  
Lucy pulled her hoodie off and gave him a small smile at the t-shirt she was wearing, the Torchwood logo on top of the TARDIS.  
"At some point that's going to stop being odd." Owen commented after staring at it for a second. "What's that blue box?"  
"The TARDIS" Lucy replied automatically glad to be back on safer ground. "It's the form of the Doctor's Time Travel machine, got stuck that way '63. It's meant to blend in - but the chameleon circuit is broken. She's beautiful though."  
"I'll take your word for it." Owen agreed took her blood pressure. "Right let's start with the basics. Full name?"  
"Can this bit be confidential too?" Lucy asked sarcastically, "I don't like it."  
Owen just stared at her and didn't say anything, she sighed. "Lucinda Elizabeth Smith." The doctor raised an eyebrow at her name and Lucy pulled a face. "I hate the name Lucinda, makes me think of old and stuffy woman. I refuse to respond to it -my name is Lucy."  
He smirked, "Ok, when's your birthday Lucinda? You'll feel a small stabbing pain - but I need to get a blood sample" He held up the needle, and she winced at the thought before looking away and presenting her arm. He was impressed with her ability to not show any discomfort from the pain as he removed enough blood to store and to use for research.  
She refused to say anything until he sighed, "fine - when were you born, Lucy?"  
Lucy smiled at him before replying "3rd March - hang on what's the date?"  
"16th June 2007" Owen said not looking up as he pulled the syringe out.  
"Then... 1984. I turned 23 a couple of months ago"  
"Do you know your blood type?"  
She shook her head, "no clue, sorry."  
"Any medical issues? Allergies?" He said pulling a thermometer out at quickly taking her temperature  
"Nope"  
"Hmm... your temperature is a bit higher than I would normally like - but I don't know if that's your normal or not. Are you currently getting over a bug, had a cold?"  
"No." She shrugged "Been feeling fine. Apart from the fact I fainted, twice" Lucy added the last bit with a wry smile.  
"When?" He looked up from his paperwork.  
"Just before I got here. I must have fainted, because last thing I remember I was walking down the plass in my world with a bit of a headache. Then it's black and I'm waking up to see you all staring at me and obviously when I realised this whole situation was real."  
"No history of fainting in the past, do you often feel dizzy?"  
"I'm normally fine." She said starting to feel uncomfortable again. "Surely it was the effect of being taken by the rift..."  
"I wouldn't know." He said returning to her file, "It's not like I've had people to study who have travelled in such a way. And even if I did we've not even heard of anyone travelling like you have from one parallel universe to another, not outside of fiction anyway."  
"Mickey, Rose and the Doctor did." Lucy said, "The doctor said there was no risk, only a bit of background radiation. Void stuff - you can see it looking through 3D glasses."  
"3D glasses?" Owen thought, "we should have them somewhere, if not they're not difficult to get."  
"It makes no difference to my health."  
"No but it would be interesting to see, any side effect of the background radiation that you know of?"  
"If someone opens the void - the gap between the universes - and I'm nearby I'd get pulled in. Anything else you need to know?"  
"Well I'd love a scan of your brain." He pulled out a small machine from a box. "This is an alien scanner. I'll get one of your body, so I can see any old broken bones and such like and then I'll do a more in-depth one of your brain. Only takes a few minutes."  
"Great." She sighed, "and then will we be done?"  
"Then we'll be nearly done. I'd like to have a look at your scars." He set the scanner running  
Lucy stiffened "Why?" She asked coldly.  
"So that I have an idea of how much damage there was and how much damage would be needed to make things a hell of a lot worse."  
"Fair bit of damage and probably quite a lot. There was a knife nearby and toys left on the floor"  
"At least tell me where they are, if you are not going to show me. I'd like to know where any potential danger area's are."  
"Base of my back and a couple on my stomach."  
"I should really see them." He said turning the scanner off and having a look at the information, "You've broken a few bones."  
"Left arm twice, right arm once, my right wrist and left leg once and each foot once as well." Lucy said with no emotion, "I used to be quite clumsy although it's got better recently."  
"I can imagine. They healed fairly well, although your left arm looks slightly weaker - you're at risk of breaking that one again with a fall if you land awkwardly." He made another note in her file before looking up at her again with his stethoscope around his neck "Well if you refuse to let me look at your scars I'll quickly hook you up to the ECG machine and then once I've done the brain scan you'll be free to go."  
"Thank god."  
"As far as I can tell you are a healthy 23 year old, although you are fairly underweight. How much do you eat?"  
Lucy shrugged, "I dunno, enough to stop me feeling hungry? I've never been a big eater."  
"In the same way you used to be clumsy?"  
"Hmmm..."  
Owen knew that it was always going to be an uncomfortable subject and could that some things were so deeply ingrained into the new member of the team to keep secret that she would never talk about them.

10 minutes later Lucy was finally free of Owen's clutches, "Thank god for that." She sighed as he removed the screen.  
"Well piss off then" Owen said as he started to get on with work.  
"No need to tell me twice." She replied jumping down off the bed and going up the stairs as quickly as possible.  
She reached the sofa in the main area and flopped down on it. "Tired?" Jack asked her looking down at her from his office before walking down to join her.  
"You try being taken from your universe and then being thrown to Owen." She replied briefly shutting her eyes, "It's more tiring than you might think."  
"I'll take your word for it." He laughed, "I've told Ianto he can finish in an hour, once the tourist office hours are over. You can go back with him then and I'll give you some money to get clothes."  
"Thanks" She smiled at the fictional character standing in front of her.  
"I'll get Tosh to get you a laptop so you can have a look at the news and such things to see if you can find any major differences between your world and ours. And I'll go looking for a safe for you to put those DVDs of yours in."  
"Thank you Captain" Lucy said seriously, "I have no idea how this is going to work but thank you for letting me try."  
"It's a challenge, and I'm not one to back down from challenges"  
"I know." She said wryly.  
"Yeah I guess you do."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I only just remembered that I was going to stick this on here as well as ff.net, which means I'll put every chapter up in one go so it's caught up.  
> Have fun - Rea

"The police have found another body" Suzie called from her workstation, Lucy looked up from the paperwork she had been filling out. She was grateful to have something to do apart from the endless paperwork that both Ianto and Jack insisted on but was also aware that this was the beginning of her knowledge of this world and what was going to happen. Plus this was the 3rd body in 10 days so Suzie was obviously getting more and more anxious to use the glove, which meant that at some point soon Gwen Cooper with be joining the team, Lucy still wasn't sure what she thought at that. Jack walked out of his office pulling his coat on.

"Ok team let's go. Lucy you finish that paperwork?"

"Yeah." She said as she grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair in the hope that she would finally be allowed into the field for anything more than a standard weevil hunt.

"Good, you can come with us" he called over to Ianto, "We'll be back in an hour or so, can you get the stuff I need for my UNIT call ready? And make sure the police know we're on the way, I don't want to have to explain things again."

"No problem sir, UNIT files and coffee will be waiting for you when you get back. I'll call the police as soon as you leave"

"You're brilliant"

"Just doing my job sir."

 

They climbed into the SUV, Owen and Tosh discussing some new medical research that had been discovered, Suzie staying silent, Jack driving and Lucy just staring out of the window. She was daydreaming about the world she was in and the world and the people she had left behind and would almost certainly never see again.

She felt someone poke her and turned to see everyone looking at her.

"What?" Lucy asked confused, playing with the end of her plait as she felt self-conscious.

"Owen asked you a question." Tosh explained.

"Oh, sorry. I was lost in though. What was it?"

Owen was about to speak again but Jack pulled the SUV into an alley and as close to the crime scene as possible.

"OK guys, show time."

They walked in silence towards the barriers and the dead body lying on the ground as SOCO moved away from the scene. Lucy couldn't help but notice Gwen in her police uniform although she made no obvious sign that she knew what was happening, this was it. Cue opening titles, Torchwood had begun.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"There you go I can taste it. Oestrogen, definitely oestrogen" Jack said as Suzie got to work setting things up. "You take the pill, flush it away and it gets into the water cycle, feminises the fish. Goes all the way up into the sky and then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. I love this planet."  
"Well it's one way of keeping the birth rates down I suppose" Lucy replied slightly sarcastically but also catching Jack's eye and then glancing up at Gwen who was watching them from the car park. Jack gave a small nod in reply, he'd spotted her as well.

"It means I won't get pregnant." He agreed "Never doing that again."

The rest of the Torchwood team looked at each other before deciding not to say anything, you could never tell with Captain Jack Harkness whether he was telling the truth or not, and most of the time it was better not to ask. Lucy shoved her free hand into the pouch on her hoodie in an attempt to get slightly warmer and for it to get less wet, staying dry was not an option.

"How's it going?" Jack asked Suzie

"Nothing yet. It's got to connect" The agent replied, "I've just got to feel it"

"Then hurry up and feel it." Owen complained "Freezing my arse off here." He and Tosh were busy filming it while Lucy was in charge of taking radiation readings. She was trying to hold the device in a way that meant her hand stayed in her pocket but after a disapproving look from Tosh about how she was handling the important instruments she rolled her eyes and held it properly, pointing the device at the dead body. Tosh gave her a small smile and then went back to looking at her own instrument.

"I can't just flick a switch." Suzie replied used to Owen's grumpy ways. "It's more like access. It grants me access."  
"Whatever that means."  
"Radiation levels rising." Lucy said suddenly as the glove lit up and Suzie took a breath.

"Positions" Jack ordered and they all knelt down next to the body.

"If I get punched again, I'm punching it right back." Owen warned them.

"Just concentrate" Jack said not really focussing on the doctor, "Suzie?"

Suzie moved the glove so it was resting underneath the head of the corpse, the rain around them stopped and the lights got brighter, Lucy was sure that Tosh noticed this and was busy making a mental note to look into it later due to the glint of a puzzle in the Japanese woman's eyes.

 

The body breathed.

"I was... I was... Oh my God. I was going home." He said.

"Listen to me." Tosh said calmly. "We've only got two minutes so it's important that you listen, ok?"  
"Who are you?"

"Trust me." Tosh stayed calm, before dropping the metaphorical bomb on the guy, who was about Lucy's age. "You're dead."

"How am I dead?"

"You were stabbed" Owen was the one supplied the information when Tosh seemed unsure if she should tell him or not.

"What do you mean I'm dead, I can't be dead. I'm talking to you."

"We've brought you back, but we haven't got long." Tosh tried to keep the man on topic "I'm sorry but you've got to concentrate. Who did this to you? What did you see?"

"Why am I dead?"

"Who attacked you?" Tosh insisted but Lucy knew they weren't going to get any information out of him, she could see it in the panic in his eyes and the memories in her head of Jack asking him something stupid, so she knelt down next to Tosh and spoke.

"What's your name?"  
"John Tucker." The man replied "Who are you, why am I dead?"

"I'm Lucy, and the man in the great coat staring down at us is Captain Jack Harkness - he's an expert at this kind of thing." Lucy knew that Gwen had to hear Jack's name. "And I'm really sorry John but I don't know why you're dead. But this is important; you have no idea who killed you, do you?"  
"I heard a noise behind me." The man replied before realising what Lucy had said "What do you mean he's an expert?"  
"What do I ask?" Tosh hissed at Jack, "he doesn't know."

"Shhh" Jack replied. "Lucy's handling it brilliantly."

"You got any family?" Lucy asked, trying to keep John as calm as possible.

"Course I have" John replied with a slight scoff before turning serious "I got me Da and a younger brother - Timmy"

"60 seconds" Suzie said but Lucy ignored her focussing on the not-dead body of John Tucker

"How old is Timmy?"

"He's 9. Am I ever going to see him again?"

"I don't think so, sorry John. I've got a sister, she's 7 and I'm not going to see her again either."  
"Are you dead?" He asked, more curious than scared. Lucy smiled sadly at him and shook her head.

"Just slightly lost."  
"What happens now?"

"I don't know." Lucy replied honestly, "what do you think happens?"  
"I dunno, it was dark and there was nothing. Oh my god there's nothing." He started panicking.

"Don't panic John" Lucy grabbed his hand, wishing there was some way they could save this guy

"I'm scared, I want to go home"  
"Me too. But neither of us are going to be able to so you've got to be strong for Timmy and I'll be strong for my sister, ok?"

John gave a small nod.

"10 seconds"

"Tell Tim he can have my comics." John said, he was still scared but pretending not to be.

"No problem." Lucy replied as the light from the Glove faded, and the rain started again. Suzie lowered John's head.

 

"I said it was stupid telling him he was dead." Owen commented as Lucy removed her hand from the dead body and went back to looking that the radiation reading.

"Well, you try it." Tosh replied as she stood up.  
"Like that's going to work. Lucy can do it next time, she's obviously good at it."  
"Well you guys were being stupid, he blatantly didn't know anything about his murder and if I'd left it up to you guys you only would have scared and panicked him more."  
"Well I'll agree that Lucy is now our resident ghost whisperer" Jack said with a shrug, "But maybe there is just not a right way to do it." He looked up at Gwen and shouted up at her, "What do you think?"

 

Gwen's head immediately disappeared and Owen cursed. "Has she been there the whole time?"  
"Yeah" Jack said.

"She was on the ground when we got here." Lucy added, "So obviously, she's just being nosey and wanted to see well beyond her pay grade"

"Clever way of doing it though." Jack mused, "I want see what else she'll do, but I'll make sure that Ianto has the Retcon ready for whenever we need it. Ok let's tidy this lot and get back to the hub so Suzie can continue her research and the rest of us can get dry."  
"You think I'm going to stay in these wet clothes?" Suzie argued jokingly

"I think you want to have a look at all the data we collected and see if you can find out more about what happened more than you want to get changed." Jack countered.  
"I want to know more about why it stopped raining." Tosh added.

"It hasn't" Owen complained, "I'm drenched."  
"Yes you are now." Tosh agreed as they walked towards the car and let SOCO back on their crime scene, "But while we were using the glove it stopped raining."  
"Did it darling? I didn't notice, I was focusing more on the fact I was already soaked and not being punched by a dead guy."

"Ok, ok, break it up guys." Their boss laughed, "When we get back to the hub we can get dry and then continue with the rest of the work that we left. Owen, I'd quite like the results of the autopsy you promised me, Tosh keep working on that translator, Suzie see what you can find out from the glove, and Lucy..." He looked at her though the mirror, "what are you currently working on?"  
"Mainly all the paperwork you gave me." she sighed, "But I've done that now. I wanted to look at the range of weapons we've got, and see what's in the archive. Ianto said he'd try and pull some different files on alien weapons for me and I wouldn't mind spending some more time in the shooting range."

"Gun's aren't always the way out of things." Jack said seriously and Lucy knew he was thinking of a certain Doctor.  
"I know, but it would be useful to have actual proper files about different weapons we've seen in the past and if different races use them; a proper database instead of relying on Ianto seeing if can find stuff in the mess that we jokingly call the archives"

"You just want the title weapons specialist." Owen scoffed and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Of course I do. You're the doctor, Tosh is the tech, Suzie deals with bits of everything but is mainly the field specialist plus she's she second in command and she has the glove, Ianto gets us everything we need, makes great coffee and deals with the mess that is the archive and Jack is in charge. I'd like to have my own area of expertise."  
"You've got our futures."

" _Random_ bits of your future." She countered "and things that may change now I'm here and I could accidentally set different things in action. Plus it's not a great introduction is it? Lucy Smith, knows what's going to happen and can't do a damn thing about it."

"Ok" Jack said stopping the argument that he could he was about to happen, Owen was quite clear that he was not happy that Lucy was allowed to keep her knowledge of the future secret. "Lucy you spend some time practising in the range and then you can start working on those weapons files, but it's going to be up to you to go looking for them in the archive, Ianto only has so much time in the day that he can spare. Keep up working with the weapons and I'll give you the title of specialist, but it'll take a while before you get there. Owen stop riling up Lucy, just because she MIGHT know what happens to you tomorrow."

"Actually to be fair, I'm pretty sure you have a threesome tomorrow." Lucy commented, causing Tosh and Jack to burst into laughter and Owen to pull a proud face about what he was going to achieve. Suzie just stayed silent not looking very impressed with the team.

 

Jack eventually pulled into the Hub car park, the journey back had predominantly been Owen trying to find out more about his threesome and everyone else, apart from Suzie, teasing him. Lucy was quieter than Jack and Tosh, but couldn't help but be happy at how she had been accepted into this group of people who would all risk their live for each other. She had never had proper friends due to her home situation but it felt nice to have that relationship with someone, it was something she knew that she would never forget and if she did ever manage to return home would make a point of trying to seek out. Although she was pretty sure normal groups of friends don't also have the lives of the rest of the city resting on them or hidden family secrets, but she resolved to never go back to being completely lonely again.

"You ok?" Jack mouthed at her and Lucy smiled at him and nodded, this was going to be even more difficult now she knew what was happening and she was going to have to put up with Gwen but she would cope. If there was one thing Lucy was good at it was 'being fine'.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Ianto was waiting for them as they walked into the hub, holding a tray full of coffee and had some files under his arm, as well as a pile of towels

"Thanks Ianto." Lucy smiled at him as she gratefully grabbed the towel and the warm mug, "It's cold and wet outside."

"Is it, I hadn't noticed?" He mocked, before looking at Jack as everyone else grabbed their respective mug and a towel, "How did it go?"  
"Lucy is now the ghost whisperer, but he knew nothing about his death. Oh and a WPC watched us, we'll need to keep an eye on her."

"What's her name?"

"No idea." Jack shrugged, "ok, you guys can all leave in an hour. now back to work." Lucy grinned at Ianto as he spoke sarcastically.

"So I'm looking for a curious WPC, well that narrows the field down and judging by Lucy's face she knows."  
"If you can't find her tonight, Lucy can tell you her name tomorrow morning."  
"Thanks for the challenge." He raised an eyebrow in exasperation before turning away and Lucy went down to the shooting range, determined to get better at using a gun. Now Gwen was in the picture, or nearly in the picture, she wasn't going to be the new girl and Lucy didn't want any bit of that stigma attached to her. Plus like Owen said Lucy wanted the bragging rights of being the weapons specialist. She wanted an area of her own like Ianto had the archives, Tosh had all the technical stuff, Owen had the medbay and Suzie had the glove and leadership in the field.

 

It was easy to lose track of time in the shooting range, her focus was simply on the weapon in her hand and the target at the other end of the room. She had decided to be completely comfortable with one gun before she moved onto the next and thought that the best place to start was the generic hand gun used by the police. Her aim continued to get better and stay consistent so she decided to get change the distance between her and the spot she was aiming for, the chances of whatever she was shooting at being the 10m she had been practising at was slim. Lucy took a couple of steps back and started all over again.

Although she wasn't as good as she would have liked at the longer distance it was easier to improve as she felt more comfortable with the gun in her hand. The weight was starting to feel natural at this point and she was used to the recoil which meant that she moved with each shot instead of against it.

There was a sound behind her and Lucy jumped, she had got so used to the echo of the shots that anything else seemed out of place.

"Getting pretty good at that" Jack said as Lucy lowered the gun and took the bullets out.

"I'm not bad." She replied, "what are you doing down here?"  
"Sending you home. Ianto's waiting for you."  
"Huh" Lucy shrugged checking her watch, "it's been nearly an hour and a half, I thought you said one hour."

"I did, Owen walked out on the hour, Tosh and Suzie pretty soon after, Ianto wanted to finish what he was doing and you looked happy enough down here. So I figured I'd let you practice some more. You really want that weapons specialist title don't you?"

"What about it? I don't want to train any newbie." Lucy said narrowing her eyes at Jack.  
"Are we likely to have another newbie?" He asked and she shrugged,

"You seemed quite impressed with that officer earlier."

"Well if we do it'll still be your job. You're the newest, sorry. But get yourself sufficient at three different distances with all of the basic weapons we've got and start working on that database with Ianto and the title's yours."  
Lucy mentally gave herself a deadline of three months to achieve that goal. "What do you mean by sufficient?"

"Don't know yet. 80% hit rate?"

"Deal" Lucy said quickly before he could change her mind, that was doable, not easy but doable. She was glad to have something to do instead of just being an extra pair of hands around the hub. Lucy had always worked better out of sight of others and with an aim in mind, she may not be completely out of sight in a team of 6 but less people would bother her down in the range even if her main desk was upstairs. She had got used to this being her world now, had almost got used to it, but it was starting to feel like home.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Why did it have to go to the bloody hospital?" Owen moaned as they all climbed back into the SUV after shoving the weevil in the boot.

"I have no idea" Jack replied, "I'm slightly more concerned with how it got to the top floor of the hospital with no one else noticing. And why that WPC was there as well."  
"Concussion" Lucy explained, "Hit her head in bar."  
"How do you know that?" Suzie asked.

"I only remember it because it's the beginning of series 1 and Andy moans just beforehand about CSI being bollocks and wanting to see CSI Cardiff."  
"Apart from it being odd that you know what happens, I agree with him. CSI Cardiff would be interesting..." Tosh mused.

"You're not the only one who thinks it's - JACK!"

Jack swerved so he wouldn't hit Gwen who was standing straight in their way. "She's going to follow us isn't she?"

"Yup." Lucy said with a slight sense of cheer and annoyance in her voice.

"So this is the first episode then?"" Jack aid changing the conversation.

"Yeah, started at the same time as the beginning of series three of Doctor Who. Although we've got about half a year before we catch up to that. Series 3 happens on Earth over four or five days, if that. Starts a couple of days before election day." Lucy said looking out of the window, thinking about how Saxon was already on earth and making plans.

"While that is completely useless, can we please focus more on the fact that there is a police car following us." Owen said looking out the back window

"Probably a good idea." Suzie and Tosh agreed.

"Ok, Ianto?" Jack said through his ear piece.

"I'm here, what do you need?" Ianto replied.

"Can you meet us at the plass? I'm going to drive the SUV up there so when our nosey officer follows us we'll all disappear on the lift."  
"No problem, I presume you want me to drive the SUV down to the car park."

"You read my mind."  
"I do my job." Ianto said. "I've found out all I need to know about WPC Gwen Cooper. I'll have it on your desk to read when you get back."  
"Brilliant. Thanks Ianto." He glanced at the rest of the team. "Ok when we walk out of this car we aren't going to talk, we're just going to look impressive and walk over to the lift. I want to see what she does."

 

They talked about nothing in particular as Jack drove the car through Cardiff city centre and down to the bay. As predicted Gwen was just behind them and they all heard her shout for Torchwood to stop, but they simply continued to walk away from her and onto the entrance stone. It was a bit of a tight fit but they were all safely out of sight.

"She does look stupid doesn't she" Owen commented as Gwen started looking around the water feature, trying to see how five people had simply disappeared.

After they watched Gwen get harassed by a parking officer to move her police car Jack allowed the stone to fall and the team lowered into the hub.

Jack started giving orders straight away. "Ianto keep an eye on her and police records, she's going to do all she can to find us. Humans with a puzzle are like dogs with a bone, Tosh can you make sure they don't know about the dead porter, make it look like a suicide or something."  
"No problem." Tosh replied as she sat down on her chair and turned on her computer, "I'll have someone say they saw him leave as well. "

"Brilliant, sometimes I worry that you're getting too good at hiding bodies. I wouldn't want to get on your bad side. Everyone else I've got nothing in particular that needs doing so get on with your own projects and all the normal paperwork. Oh and on that note Ianto what did you do with the weevil?"

"I put it in the cells, Owen's been talking about getting a pet weevil for a while thought he might want this one. It obviously likes doctors."

"Oh ha ha very funny." Owen replied sarcastically as he walked past the desks to his area "Although actually that's useful, thanks tea boy. She needs a name though..." Owen pretended to think before giving an evil grin, "I know who she reminds me of, my lovely mother - Janet."  
"Janet the weevil?" Tosh asked with a slight laugh

"Yeah, why not?"  
"Janet it is then." Jack agreed, "and for obvious reasons try not to get mauled when you go down there."

"I'll do my best." the doctor replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

 

Lucy laughed at the banter between the group before sitting down at her own computer and glancing at Tosh's written instructions she hacked into Crimnet.

"You're getting better at that." Tosh commented looking over from her desk.   
"I think so" Lucy replied with a slight smile.

"I mean it still took you longer than needed, and you still need my cheat sheet." She smirked, "But you're definitely improving."

"I know." She couldn't help but be sarcastic in her response to the Asian woman. "One day I'll be able to hack into the police with no help in only a couple of minutes. And then you can throw me a party because I'll be all grown up." Tosh gave a small laugh,

"And then I'll get you hacking into the government properly. Honestly, you've been with Torchwood for two and a half months and it still takes you five minutes to get into the police servers. Technology is not your thing is it?"

"Nope." She sighed, "never has been really. I can cope with a phone and basic computer stuff. But it turns out hacking is above me."

"You'll get there." Tosh turned back to look at her screen, "One day." She added, "I might even buy you a cake."

"I can't wait" Lucy rolled her eyes but stayed focused on the screen, searching for any information about John Tucker. She needed to find a reason for knowing him and calling his family to express her sympathies and to pass on his message about giving his comics to his kid brother. It didn't take long until she found what she was looking for, John Tucker was a third year student at Cardiff University.

 

"What are you looking for?" Suzie asked and Lucy made notes of the relevant information before searching for his facebook, it was amazing how useful that site was for finding out about people.

"Information on John Tucker" Lucy replied not looking across as she continued to jot down anything useful. "I promised him I'd let his brother know he could keep him comics. But I can hardly turn up on the doorstep and say his animated dead body told me that can I?"

"It's not an animated dead body." Suzie complained, "He was alive for those two minutes"  
"Except he wasn't alive because he was using your life force, needed your help whatever." Lucy finally looked up, her and Suzie had had this argument a few times. She was all for locking the glove away but Suzie wanted to know more, and as Jack was interested he allowed the research to continue, albeit slower than Suzie was happy about. Lucy had been the only person that hadn't tried the glove, Owen refused to let her try on medical grounds citing that the danger involved for Lucy was too high. It relied on a connection between the user and the body and Lucy was from somewhere completely alien, too much could go wrong.

"We brought him back to life. I'm not saying it doesn't matter who he was, but we only went to the body for research."

"The point is Suzie that he was dead, we may have brought him back to life but some bastard killed him and we used his body and his death, and it matters because I held his hand as he died again."

"He was dead anyway he didn't die again. What does it matter if it helps us in learning more about how the glove works. Some people leave their bodies to science and they get used for research and this is so much more important."  
"If you're claiming we brought him back to life, then it's fully feasible to say he died again. It matters because it wasn't his choice. He had been stabbed in the back on his way back home, probably thinking about work or dinner or normal human things and he was stabbed. Whoever did that took his life, and hopefully the police will find out who it was and they'll be punished. But we used his death."  
"We tried to find out who killed him, he didn't know."  
"We still used something that wasn't ours Suzie, he was dead and we brought his soul back, or whatever. But however we did it and whatever he was, doesn't change the fact that he asked me to make sure his kid brother got his comics." Lucy sighed and took a deep breath before talking again. "I understand why we're going to disagree on this but all I can think about is his family. I've got no one in this world and I left only a few people in mine, I have no clue what they think has happened to me. He's got a younger brother whose world has just been destroyed, I just want to make sure that little boy has something of his brother to hold onto. I just... I know this isn't how Torchwood normally works, but I think this is something I need to do."

"Well stop preaching at us and get on with it then." Suzie said with a shrug. Lucy sighed and typed the number into her phone. She had no idea what she was going to say or how she was going to say it, but by the time she finished the conversation Tim would have his brother's old comic.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy felt emotionally exhausted when she got off the phone, it had taken a while to persuade John's father that she was a university friend, the information Tosh had found on John Tucker was invaluable. The dad had promised to pass the message on to Tim, and was grateful for the phone call and had even gone as far as inviting her to the funeral when it happened.   
It had turned dark while Lucy had been speaking to Mr Tucker, and she walked back to the main area of the hub to find the rest of the team looking at footage from a CCTV camera of Rould Dahl Plass, Gwen was standing around inspecting the stones.

"How long has she been there?"  
"About 10 minutes," Jack replied, "how did the phone call go?"  
"As well as it could" She shrugged, "I'm not totally sure he believed me but he was happy to speak to anyone about his son."

"Well, let's keep an eye on PC Gwen Cooper but get back to work. Lucy can you get started on the weapons database you've been talking about? Ianto has found you loads of forms and files in the archives for you to start with. He's put them on your desk"  
"No problem"

"Ianto, I know it looks fine but I want this hub spotless, just in case she does get in. It needs to look like the perfect underground alien hunting base." Ianto nodded "Suzie, keep working on the glove and the knife, Tosh if you could try and get that new translation software from UNIT that would be brilliant and Owen I need you to actually complete your paperwork."

They all got on with their assigned jobs with little moaning, everyone except Owen, but he moaned about everything anyway. The work might sometimes be tedious but Torchwood was one of the best jobs in the world.

 

Lucy looked at the stack of papers on her desk, some looking like they dated back to when Torchwood first started. She may have mentioned the idea last night but that didn't mean she had any idea where to start. Eventually she figured that the best thing to do would be to read through all of them and find any links between the different weapons. Lucy knew that Torchwood had a system for categorising weapons but it had become quite lax recently since just before the millennium and over the years lots of things got shoved in the wrong storage space due to ease and space available. So she decided to start from the oldest files - type them up so they had a soft copy, and writing them up again so they had a hard copy as well, just in case. That alone was going to take up most of her time in Torchwood - due to the size of the archives - but once she had everything put away neatly and in its proper place it would make everything a lot easier and it would become easy to maintain that standard. She could then get to work with grouping them and making it into a proper database, which would be the easier job once she knew what they were and how she wanted them organised.

Lucy turned the pile upside down so she was starting from the bottom. She plugged her headphones into her ipod and began to work.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Torchwood got on with their jobs, but they all kept an eye on the CCTV screen that was open on every computer - watching PC Gwen Cooper walk around, still trying to work out how 5 people had disappeared right in front of her.

When Gwen walked off, everyone apart from Lucy, thought she had finally given up. But fifteen minutes later and Gwen was walking back holding two Jubilee Pizza boxes she walked down the bay and towards the tourist office.

"Well at least I don't have to order out tonight, she's done the work for us." Ianto commented dryly.

Jack thought for a bit before speaking, "Ok this is what we're going to do. She's going to come in here and we're going to ignore her, pretend like she's not there and not important. Everyone at your desk and get on with something. If she wants to talk to us, she's going to have to be the one to start that conversation. Ianto, you go upstairs and let her in."

Lucy grinned and turned back to her work, quickly turning the CCTV screen off - there was no need for Gwen to know they had been watching her. Once Jack walked upstairs to check something and to think of something that would make his entrance more impressive, Lucy noticed Owen turn back to his crossword instead of the half finished paperwork.

 

It didn't take long for Gwen to walk into the hub and join them, Lucy kept her back to her and tried not to look at Owen or Tosh as she knew that she would only need to catch their eyes and she would laugh. It didn't matter anyway because as Jack walked past she heard Owen stifle a laugh, Tosh couldn't help it she started laughing and Lucy grinned and laughed as well.

Owen pushed his chair out from his desk, laughing.

"I can't do this. I'm sorry. I'm rubbish. I give up."

"He set me off" Tosh accused pointing at Owen,

"I only broke after they did" Lucy added defensively.

"Well that lasted about 0.2 seconds" Suzie joked as she put down the blowtorch and lifted the mask.

"Hmm... she actually carrying pizza" Owen commented, Lucy got up from her desk and took the pizza's off Gwen.

"I'll take them." She opened the boxes and pulled out a slice from the bottom, "It's our normal just on two pizzas. Half and half. Mine's shared with you Owen. Doesn't look like Jack has any or Ianto. Suzie and Tosh you've got the other" Lucy said putting the other box on the workstation.

"Pass it over when you're finished." Owen replied "may be less than normal, but it's still food."

Jack got up from his desk and walked over to join them. "Come on. She was gonna say _'Here's your pizza,'_ and I was gonna say _'how much?_ ' and she says _'oh whatever 20 quid'_ and I say _'oh I don't have any money'_ " he frowned. "I was working on a punch line. It was going to be good."

"Well now you've got your pizza I think I had better go." Gwen said, scared about what she had walked into and who all these people were.

"I think we've gone past that stage" Jack said simply, letting her know that they were not going to let her just walk out of the door.

"You must be freezing" Suzie said as she walked across the hub to join them and get her pizza, "How long were you walking round? 3 hours?"  
"You could see me?"Gwen asked shocked

Suzie just nodded and opened the other pizza box

"And before we go any further," Jack said, speaking to the team, "who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" Owen raised his hand, looking slightly sheepish but unrepentant.

"Uh, yeah, that would be me. Sorry I'm a twat."

 

"That man at the hospital." Gwen said, finally starting to ask questions, "That porter. What happened to him? That was real wasn't it? He was attacked."  
"He's dead." Jack replied bluntly.

"But there's no one gone missing."

"We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next 48 hours so when his body is pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night he's only been missing three days" Tosh explained

"He was murdered."

"Yeah."

"And you covered it up?"

"It's my job" Tosh shrugged. Gwen looked at all of them, trying to work out what Torchwood was and what role each of them played.

"And that other man, John Tucker? Last night in the alleyway, I saw you."  
"What did you see?" Jack asked walking towards the police officer.

"You revived him."  
"No." Jack said plainly, Gwen had to reach the conclusion all on her own and say it aloud. "What did you see?"  
"You resuscitated him" She tried, but looked away from Jack.

"No. What did you _see_?"

"You brought him back to life." Gwen said with slight accusation in her voice.

"Yeah." Jack nodded, glad that she wasn't running for the hills or spouting at the impossibility of it.

"Who are you?"  
"Torchwood." Jack replied simply.  
"What's Torchwood?"

"This is Torchwood, all around you." he gestured at the rest of the team.

"And what happens to me? I'm police, Constable Gwen Cooper. You can't do anything." She sounded nervous and Jack thought for a bit before speaking.

"Right then, PC Cooper. Do you want to come see?"

"See what?"  
"You saw the murder, now come see the murderer" He started to walk further into the hub, not waiting for Gwen to follow. Gwen was unsure what to do next but after a small prompt from Suzie she followed.

"What is Torchwood?" Gwen asked as she caught up with Jack "Who are you, what is this place?"  
There was a screech from above as Myfwany flew in

"What was **that**?" Gwen shouted

"Pterodactyl." Lucy replied starting to finish off her work for the night as well as another slice of pizza.

Gwen and Jack walked out of sight and the rest of the team started finishing for the day.

 

"What do you think then?" Tosh asked

"About Cooper?" Owen replied spinning round on his chair, "she's nice enough on the eyes I suppose. Suzie? Lucy?"

"Well she didn't run away screaming?" Suzie said with a shrug

"She paid for pizza," Lucy added "even if we normally order more."

"Yeah, what's with that?"  
"Her pay check is nowhere near as big as ours." Tosh pointed out, "we can afford to buy that much and it's on a rota when Ianto's not getting it on the Torchwood bill. It would be a fairly big chunk of her low wage pay."

"So do you know anything interesting about her then Lucy?" Owen asked. Lucy just shrugged and changed the topic.

"Anyone know if there is anything good on TV tonight?"  
"I don't care." Owen replied, "I've got my threesome remember? I mean I need to find these people but it should be a lot better than what's on TV"

"I really didn't want that image in my head" Lucy shuddered and Tosh agreed.

"I'm watching an interesting program about the history of the computer chip." Tosh said and Lucy pretended to think about it.

"Forgive me Tosh, but while that sounds _fascinating,_ I think I'll pass."  
"Because it sounds deathly dull" Owen contradicted her.

"Owen, not only are you keeping a weevil in the cells s you can learn more about them, you named it Janet after your mum." Lucy said sarcastically, "Your idea of dull is very very different to mine."  
"No, it's fine." Tosh said, "I know it's not everyone's thing..."

"But it is yours and we love you for it." Lucy said, "Might just go to a DVD rental place. I've watched all the stuff at Ianto's now."

"Did I hear my name?" Ianto said as he walked down and started to tidy up around them.

"Just saying I've watched all of your DVDs." She shrugged, "What do you want done with these files, back into the archives or does my locked cupboard work just as well?"  
"As long as they are locked up, I don't mind." Ianto replied, "Makes it easier for me if I don't have to put them away and then find them again tomorrow morning."

 

Jack and Gwen walked back up and the conversation stopped.

"Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper" The Captain said introducing them.  
" _Dr_ Owen Harper, thank you." Owen corrected him.

"Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Suzie Costello, she's second in command. Lucy Smith, working on becoming our weapons expert." Lucy smiled and locked the files into the cupboard. "And Ianto Jones, Ianto tidies up after us and gets us everywhere on time"

"I try my best"

"And he also looks good in a suit."  
"Careful," Ianto said with only the vaguest tones of amusement in his voice "that's harassment, sir."

"But why are you telling me their names?" Gwen asked "I'm not supposed to know am I? This is classified isn't it?"  
"Oh way beyond classified." Jack agreed.

"Then you shouldn't be telling me. What are you going to do to me?"  
"What do you imagine?" Jack replied allowing her imagination to take over and come up with things much worse than what they were going to do.

"Well I've seen too much, your names and everything, and the Weevil and..." she looked at Tosh. "You can dump a man in the water and lie about his death."

Jack grabbed his long coat and walked out of his office, giving orders. Everyone took this as their signal to grab their coats and go home as well.

"Ok, Tosh, finish that calibration in the morning. Owen, first thing get a hold of Chandler and Bell, 'cause I think they're lying. Ianto, if he needs backup, then you'd better be on standby. Lucy, tomorrow morning I want a plan of what you're going to do with a rough estimate how long it's going to take if you do it full time and if you leave it as a side project. Suzie, I know it's a pain in the ass but I need the costing on the glove research." He pointed at Gwen, "And as for you, your coming with me. This way." Jack walked down to the paving slab and Gwen followed.

"I'm getting tired of following you around." She complained. Jack gave her his charming grin in reply.

"No you're not. And you never will"

 

Lucy waved at the pair as they rose on the paving block and then walked over to Ianto, saying goodnight to the rest of the team as they left.

"How long are you planning on staying?"

"Long enough to make sure Miss Cooper doesn't leave herself a reminder about Torchwood." Ianto replied.

"What if she just writes it down with pen and paper?" Lucy asked, she had always been curious.

"I did some research earlier, looked into her home computer, emails, facebook, that sort of thing. She's not the kind of person to write a diary from what I can tell but also she relies on the computer email alerts to remind her to do stuff. So the balance of probability says that she'll store it on the computer." Lucy stared at him.

"That's kinda scary that you know that. Brilliant, but scary." The Welshman just laughed at her,

"It's my job - I clean up after them, remember?"

"It's more than cleaning up after them." Lucy argued " Anyway what I was going to ask was, do you want me to wait with dinner or not?" She asked, aware that her and Ianto were acting like a couple, but it was simply easier for them to live together instead of just living in the same house, besides they had become good friends and eating together is always better than eating alone.

"It'll probably be fairly late. You can take the car and I'll go via the chippy next to the taxi rank."

"Ok cool, just wanted to check. I'm planning an early night so I'll probably see you tomorrow morning. See ya Ianto"

"Bye Lucy." He said with a smile. "Enjoy the new book."  
"I'd ask how you know," she laughed, "but I'd forgotten that you always know everything."

"It was delivered to the house this morning." Ianto replied, "I found out the usual way, with my eyes..."  
"Ok, well like I said I'll see you tomorrow morning." With a smile and a wave she walked along the corridor and out into Cardiff Bay.

 

(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)(*_*)

 

The next day at Torchwood was fairly slow, Lucy and Ianto got in early as normal as Ianto wanted to check up on Lisa and make sure she was ok as well as having everything prepared for when the rest of the team decided to get in.

Lucy spent the early morning in the practice range continually changing and improving on her shots. It was very repetitive work getting as she got to not only Torchwood standard but also knowing that she wanted to be above that with a majority of weapons. Lucy simply put her ipod on, under her ear protectors, listened to music and allowed herself to forget about anything else apart from the music, the gun in her hand and the target at the other end of the range. She was very proud of her ipod, this was primarily because it was going to be made in a couple of years which meant that she was ahead of the market and Tosh wanted to take it apart to examine it. Unfortunately it this also meant that she couldn't update any music on it because the itunes system wasn't advanced enough yet.

 

The rest of the day was normal Torchwood stuff, if that was at all possible. They all got on with their own individual projects talking and laughing with each other as they did so. Lucy was the only one, apart from Jack, who noticed that Suzie didn't seem herself - her temper was slightly shorter and she was worried about something.

it was only around 7pm, after everyone else left that things changed. Lucy had decided to work late, she was starting to get into her stride with the setting up of the new weapons database and had nearly finished working out the different categories she was going to place them under, and decided to stay late so she could get it done as well as finish writing/typing up the first 20 files in the pile Ianto had given her. Once everyone had left Lucy brought up the CCTV of the city above her head, following Suzie as she walked around the bay seemingly working out what she was going to do, as well as following Gwen home from the Police Station and watching as she left the house again and headed in the direction of the Bay.

She wasn't sure when she should involve Jack in this, as he often had the CCTV in the surrounding area up on his computer screen at night but she was also aware that she couldn't take the risk of him not knowing. Lucy got up from her desk and walked over to Jack's office, knocking on the door before letting herself in.

"Lucy" Jack grinned at her, "what can I do for you? Letting me know that you're going home in case I want to follow?"  
"Not quite Captain." Lucy said with a small grin, "That edges a bit _too_ close to harassment."

"You've been living with Ianto too long." he laughed before turning serious, "so what's up?"

"Just thought you might want to know that Gwen Cooper is on her way down to the bay, and Suzie's been hanging around, mainly staying in the shadows but still hanging around."  
"There's nothing wrong with her staying in the bay, what she does in her spare time isn't my problem. But thanks for letting me know about Cooper."

"Just..." Lucy was trying to work out the best way to phrase it, "You might want to keep the CCTV on the water tower, it can't be a good sign. I know you noticed the way Suzie was acting today... I'm just a bit..." She struggled for the right word, "concerned?"

"Are you telling me that something could happen between those two?" Jack asked leaning forward suddenly interested. Lucy sighed as she tried to work out what to say.

"I know more about Gwen Cooper than I do about Suzie Costello, that's all I'm saying."

Jack nodded and brought up the CCTV like Lucy suggested. Gwen had parked her car and walked into the main plass by the tower, she was looking around and both Torchwood agents knew she was trying to find something to spark her memory of the night before.

Suzie stepped out from behind the tower and started to talk to Gwen.

"Only problem with CCTV." Jack joked "Can't hear anything." Once Suzie pulled out the gun he jumped up and raced across the hub to the paving slab that doubled as their outside lift. "that's my cue."

"What do you want me to do?" Lucy asked as he rose up through the levels.

"Keep watching the cameras." Jack replied.

 

Lucy watched on the cameras, she knew that Jack was there listening to Suzie admit to killing all those people because she wanted to use the glove but seeing his dead body drop into sight was odd. She quickly noted the time so she would know what to cut out of the CCTV recordings - or rather more accurately so Jack would be able to cut it out. There was no way that Lucy was going to be to hack the footage and delete that bit and make it look clean.

She watched as Jack came back to life and as Suzie shot herself through the head, making a mental note to find that book that released the hub from Suzie's back up plan.

Her phone went off, it was Jack calling.

"Lucy," Jack said the second she picked up "I hate to have to ask you to do this for one of your colleagues but can you get a body bag and the SUV? I'd deal with her myself but I don't want to have to leave PC Cooper alone."  
"No problem Jack." She replied glad that she had eventually got the money needed to learn how to drive in her home universe. "I'll be 5 minutes max."

"Thanks." He said and she could hear the relief and the disappointment in his voice.

Lucy walked through the hub towards the car park, and grabbed one of the body bags from the storage room - it was always a bad sign in any company that they kept body bags and that everyone knew where they were stored. But in a group like Torchwood, not having body bags would have been a grievous oversight, they would never be able to protect everyone.

Forcing herself to stop thinking morbid thoughts, Lucy quickly drove from the car park onto the plass where Jack was giving Gwen a hug as she accepted what had happened to her.

  
"Thanks Lucy" Jack said as she jumped out of the car, she couldn't see Suzie's body and Jack explained that as well, "I put her on the lift, thought it best to keep her out of sight."

"Probably a good idea," she gestured towards Gwen, "how do you want me to help with PC Cooper?" Gwen moved out of Jack's hug and just listened to the conversation as she tried to get over the shock of not only defeating the Retcon but also watching Suzie shoot herself right through the head in front of her.

"I'm going to call the others, and then put Suzie's body in the mortuary. We need a team meeting first thing tomorrow morning. But first tell me honestly have you or Ianto got any artefacts at your flat?"  
"None that I know of." Lucy replied, honestly, "I definitely don't and I can't imagine that Ianto does either."

"I didn't think any of you guys would." Jack sighed, "but Suzie took the glove home and experimented. I'll check with the others as well." Lucy made a point to not make eye contact with Jack, knowing that both Tosh and Owen had something. Unfortunately the Captain noticed this and sighed. "Great, this wasn't how I had planned my evening. Ok, Lucy can you take Gwen home - she's not safe to drive right now. I know you and Ianto are normally the first in but make sure you are both in by 9am. We'll have the team meeting then, once I know what to say." Lucy nodded.

"Am I allowed to tell Ianto what the meeting is about?" She asked, Jack just nodded tiredly looking his age - at least 100 years old. "It wasn't your fault Jack." She said trying to reassure him.

"I introduced her to Torchwood, I let her research on the glove and then she murdered three people. How is it not my fault?"  
"Because we have free will. " Lucy replied, "She chose to accept your offer of a job, she pushed to be allowed to research and learn more about the glove and because she was the one who got obsessed with it."   
Jack decided not to reply to what Lucy said, she didn't expect him to but she hoped that he thought about it and eventually accepted it. Instead he spoke to Gwen.

"Turn up tomorrow morning at 9:30 once I've had a chance to talk to the rest of the team, we need to talk."

"Yeah." Gwen agreed.

"Come on." Lucy said to Gwen, "Let's get you home to your boyfriend."

 

It didn't take long to take Gwen home, Lucy managed to get a taxi pretty quickly and went back to her flat. She was exhausted and ready to go to bed the second she let herself through the door.

Ianto was on the sofa watching the news.

"I thought you'd be back earlier." He said as she let herself in, Lucy just sighed and he looked up and immediately noticed that something must have happened due to the look on her face. "What happened?" He asked as he muted the TV.  
"Where should I start?" She replied as she made her way over and sagged into the sofa.

"From the beginning."

"Well we've got a team meeting at 9am tomorrow, it turns out Suzie was the one behind those murders, she blew her own brains out in front of Gwen who was already close to defeating the Retcon - she remembers everything now."  
"Suzie did what?"  
"Gave herself completely to the glove, it worked better with fresh and traumatic deaths. So that's what she did."

"Bloody hell."  
"Exactly." Lucy agreed. "Jack got there in time to stop her killing Gwen so she killed herself instead. I was watching on the CCTV."

"Are you ok?"  
"I wasn't nearly shot and my brains are still in my head." Lucy replied sarcastically

"You know what I mean."  
"I'm fine. I need a bit more food and then a lot of sleep." She said with a smile, "Kinda ruined my plans for tonight."

"We'll get a DVD another night." Ianto said with a shrug. "So is the meeting tomorrow about Suzie then?"  
"Yeah" Lucy pushed herself up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen to grab some cereal, Ianto followed her. "Plus Jack wants to check that the others haven't taken an alien artefact home - I said that we hadn't so if you have please hand it back in and let Jack know that I didn't know, I don't want him to think me a liar."  
"I've not going anything." Ianto said with a small smile, "Don't want to get any attention because of Lisa."  
"Well that's ok then. Not about Lisa just that I didn't lie. Sorry." She apologised realising how what she said could have sounded, "I'm not thinking straight." she was busy moving around the kitchen getting everything she needed.  
"It's fine I knew what you meant."  
"Yeah so the meeting is about what happened along with how to act with alien artefacts. It's probably also about Gwen joining the team - he's invited her as well although she's turning up half an hour after us." Lucy poured the milk over her rice crispies and started to eat.

"Hmm..." Ianto thought, "It will keep his attention off me with a new member."  
"Yeah, although he hinted towards it being my job to get her up to scratch"  
"It probably is, you're the most recent, only joining 2 and a half months ago."  
"Great." Lucy wasn't impressed but went back to her food "That will be fun."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The next morning Ianto and Lucy were the only one apart from Jack to know what the meeting was about, although before it started Jack took the alien artefacts off Tosh and Owen and gave them a look of disappointment.

"Where's Suzie?" Owen asked as they sat down to talk "She's not normally late."  
"That's what the meetings about." Jack said seriously as he sat down.

"So it's not just you bollocking us about taking stuff home? Because oh no I took something that allowed me to get sex and Tosh took something that put a book onto a computer." Owen moaned sarcastically.

"No" Jack sighed, "It's not about that, you won't be doing it again though - no matter how innocent the artefact is. Suzie took something home with her as well, the glove. She gave her mind to the glove and the knife and because she wanted more bodies to experiment one she killed for them. The last three bodies that we went to - the ones that were all stabbed in the back by a single knife - they were all Suzie."  
"No..." Tosh breathed

"I don't believe it." Owen said.

"Well you'd better believe it, because she did. Last night, Gwen came back. She had been fighting against the Retcon and remembered something about the plass and the water tower and the police had a drawing of what the knife looked liked. As she was fighting against the Retcon and knew what the knife looked like, she was the only person capable of making the link between Suzie and the deaths. Suzie decided that the only thing she could do was to shoot Gwen and go on the run with both the knife and the glove."

"Shit." Owen muttered and Tosh had gone completely pale, Lucy and Ianto stayed silent as they already knew what Jack was saying and had had time to take in the information.

"Luckily Lucy spotted Suzie hanging around the bay and Gwen turning up on the CCTV so I was able to get there to stop her killing Gwen. However Suzie turned the gun on herself instead and killed herself. There was nothing that I could do to stop her."

Jack allowed them time to take in the information about their colleague and friend before dropping the next bombshell.

"I'm offering Gwen Cooper a job."  
"What?" Owen spluttered, "why?"  
"Because she's got skills we can use and because she's broken through the Retcon. It's not a subject up for discussion, she'll be here in about 15 minutes"  
"So you call us in for a meeting to tell us that our friend not only killed herself but killed others as well. And on top of that you've found a replacement."

"I know it's not easy." Jack tried, "but the job doesn't stop."

"No" Owen agreed "it's not easy but that doesn't change the fact that she was our friend and you're acting like it's ok that she's gone because you've got us a new toy to play with."  
"You know that's not what I mean" Jack said standing up and leaning over the desk to look at them, "You've got till Gwen comes in for her first day of work to sort yourself out. It's not her fault that Suzie did those things." He looked at all of them before walking out of the conference room to leave them to their thoughts.

 

"Shit" Owen said kicking the chair next to him over.

"That about sums it up" Lucy agreed with a sigh.

"You knew this was going to happen." Owen said turning on Lucy, "You must have done and you said a couple of days ago that it was episode 1."  
"I tried to stop it, I got Jack to get Suzie to slow down on her research but I couldn't do anything else!" Lucy replied knowing that Owen was accusing her of not doing enough. "It's a damn good thing I was watching the CCTV otherwise Suzie would have shot Gwen and gone on the run."  
"So we're supposed to be grateful?"  
"I never said that." She could feel her temper rising and tried to shove it back down.

"Stop it you two." Tosh said cutting across this argument, "it's not helping anyone. The more important thing is what we're going to do now."

"What do you mean?" Owen asked, as both he and Lucy calmed down.

"Well what are we going to tell Gwen about Jack?"  
"What _do_ we know about Jack?" Ianto asked sarcastically before Owen could say anything.

"Well we know he can't die." Tosh pointed out, "His records in Torchwood go back to the early 1900s. He went AWOL during WWII..."  
"Ok so we all get your point. What do you mean?" Owen asked tiredly

"Well do we tell her? Does she know? Lucy?"

"Suzie shot Jack first." Lucy replied with a sigh as she played with the end of her plait, "While he was still on the lift." she added after a small pause

"Shit."

"Yeah, it was odd to watch on the CCTV."

"So do we let her know that we know or not? Jack told us, before we saw it happen." Tosh continued.

"We keep it secret." Owen said coming to a decision, "We keep the little we know about Jack secret and at the first opportunity we ask her what she's found out; see if she spills anything. But we don't let her know that we know about Jack's immortality until absolutely necessary. She doesn't need to know that we know."

"Agreed." Ianto said and they all looked at him in shock, "what?" He asked, "I agree with Owen sometimes."  
"Not very often though tea-boy." Owen joked,

"Are we done?" Lucy asked standing up, "I want to go shoot something."  
"I might join you." Owen said standing up as well. "Seems the best way to get over what Suzie did and how Jack told us."

"Anyone else going to join us?" Lucy looked at Ianto and Tosh.

"It sounds very tempting." Tosh mused and Ianto nodded, shooting something was always a good way to get rid of excess energy.

"Well come down and join me whenever you feel like it." Lucy said with a smile, "at some point we should do a team trip to laser quest or paintballing. Shooting moving thinking targets without actually hurting each other."

"It's a bit childish don't you think." Tosh commented with a small smile.

"Could be a laugh though." Owen agreed, "No matter how childlike it is. And we'd all get a chance to shoot Jack, although we could do that anyway."  
"He still dies though." Tosh pointed out.

"I suppose." He shrugged, "I'll bring it up with him at some point. But for now I'm going to use real bullets and fake targets."

"Let's go shoot stuff." Lucy agreed, "See you two later."

 


	3. Chapter 3 - Day 1

Lucy was not happy, she had been cooking dinner when she received a text from Jack _‘Just a reminder that you’re teaching Gwen the ropes, she starts tomorrow.’_ She had tried calling Jack to complain but he wasn’t hearing any of it, claiming it was her responsibility because she was the newest and then hung up. So Lucy turned to Ianto to complain to him about it, Ianto very quickly tuned her out knowing that there was nothing that could be done and Lucy just needed to complain before getting on with it.

Just as she was getting into her stride, there was a rumbling sound from outside. The two Torchwood agents both immediately stopped what they were doing and looked out the window; there was something flying through the sky on fire, leaving a massive gas cloud behind it, from what they could see, hear, and feel when it hit the ground; it landed quite close to them. They both looked at each other and sighed, any plans for a relatively quiet night in went out the window and both mobiles went off. Lucy picked it up, knowing what it was going to say and was not wrong. ‘ _Torchwood.’_

It was time to go into work, she put her pasta and sauce into a thermos so she would have something to eat – it was going to be a long night and she didn't know when there would be time for Ianto to order food. While she was getting ready to go into the field and see what had happened, Ianto was searching for anything on his phone while changing back into his work suit, ready to go back to the hub and have everything the rest of the team needed when they returned.

 

Ianto’s flat was only a five minute walk from the hub, which normally was not a long distance, but in times like this where speed was of the essence, Jack or Owen had agreed to pick her up from the flat providing it was in the right direction.

The SUV was outside the flat in about a minute and Jack raised an eyebrow at Lucy holding a thermos flask.

“It’s going to be a long night and I'm hungry. I'm not going to take it into the field, I'll leave it in the car and eat it when we get to the hub.” She shrugged, as she got in. “Jack do I really have to mentor Cooper? I mean surely someone else would be better. You know someone who doesn’t already kinda hate her.”

“You’re the newest” Owen said, “I had to do it for Tosh, and Suzie did it for me.”

“The only reason Tosh didn’t do it for you was because you already had a working knowledge and you’re a special case. That’s why I took over. Besides you don’t know Gwen, you just know how they showed her on TV in very specific situations.” Jack added, "Get over it, it's happening."

They pulled up and picked up Tosh.

“Hiya Tosh.” Lucy smiled, “How much has this alien invasion ruined your evening plans then? Cause Owen would have just gone out drinking so really he should thank it. Or at least his liver should.”

“Oi!” Owen said and Jack laughed. Tosh just shrugged.

“I was just going to work on updating the translation software. Nothing much.”

“Gwen’s just on the side there.” Jack said.

“I know I’ve spotted her.” Owen replied as he pulled up.

“You could just drive away.” Lucy tried, Jack turned round and faced her.

“Enough Lucy. She’s your co-worker, even though for now she’s reporting to you. I don’t care that you don’t like her in the show. Live with it.”

“Sorry Jack.” Lucy said hanging her head, she knew that she had pushed it for too long and Jack wasn't happy or impressed, they stopped and Gwen got in.

 

"You'll want to sit in the middle." Lucy said to Gwen, "That way Tosh and I can use the computer screens." Gwen nodded and climbed over the younger girl into the middle, Tosh gave a small laugh.

"You're not brilliant at using them at the best of times anyway." As soon as Gwen was seated and the door was shut Owen started driving again.

"Yes well... I'll be better than Gwen. For now anyway. Gwen for the record - technology really isn't my thing."

"That's an understatement." Owen smirked in the rear view mirror.

"Can we focus on the meteorite and not my failings with anything higher than basic computers please?" Lucy asked

"Good idea." Jack agreed, turning round to face them better, "It's a simple locate-and-clean-up operation. Find that meteorite before anyone else gets their hands on it. Good to see you by the way."

The computer screens came down and Tosh immediately started getting to work trying to find the landing site while Lucy went online to the forums to look at the theories and first hand reports hoping to find where it had first been seen.

"You got enough kit?" Gwen asked sarcastically

"Tosh have you got it yet?" Owen asked as he drove

"Basic surveillance." Tosh shrugged answering Gwen's question while she tried to find to the answer to Owen's "With this, we can tap into CCTV networks and databases..."  
"See it's a lot more complex than using a computer." Lucy added, "my technological failings don't look quite as bad now." Gwen didn't reply to Lucy she was too busy looking at one of the screens.

"Is this CRIMINT?" She asked before looking at them who nodded and shrugged, "This is the police computer system. You shouldn't have this." She accused.

"Might want to stop saying 'you' and start saying 'we'" Jack said from the front.

"Got it." Tosh said suddenly, "I'm patching it through to the SatNav now."

"Brilliant." Owen glanced at the screen and turned a corner, "We'll be there in 15 minutes."  
"Lucy, what are you up to and how's it going?" Jack asked

"Trying to use the internet to see if I can find out where this thing was first spotted." Lucy replied "I figure when we've got time we can use this information and find out which area of space it started from."

"Good idea, any progress?"  
"Nothing right now. The forums are fairly active as you would imagine. It went north-east to west across Cardiff from what I can tell though. It'll be more comprehensive later once the forums have died down a bit."

 

They drove in silence for just under 15 minutes when Tosh said.

"Crash site is 100meters ahead, turn left." Owen did so and the headlights lit up the army in front of them.

"Shit." he said as he braked. "The amateurs got here first."

The Army had cut off the area and soldiers were climbing out of vans holding different pieces of kit as others kept a couple of police cars back. They all climbed out of the SUV and Lucy handed Gwen a box with some kit in.

"Wouldn't want you to leave it in the SUV and get left behind." She joked.

"Thanks." Gwen replied, "I'm a bit out of my depth."  
"You'll be fine. We all were nervous on our first time out." Lucy said with a smile, "Plus it looks bad on me if I get you lost within half an hour of your first shift starting. Jack _really_ wouldn't be happy with me."

"Alright" Jack said as they started to walk towards the barrier, forcing the police to move out of their way. "Usual formation."  
"What the usual formation?" Gwen asked

"Varies" Owen said with a shrug

"How can a usual formation vary?"

"It's any way that makes us look impressive and that makes them do what we want them to do. It varies because we have different kit at different times." Lucy replied, "At least that's what I've guessed these past two months. Jack refuses to confirm my suspicions, but this is _Jack_ we're talking about."

 

The soldiers didn't look very happy as they let them through and this made Gwen feel even more out of place as the rest of Torchwood just ignored it. The army never liked Torchwood and much preferred UNIT but that was because they were able to understand how UNIT was run and the chain of command, plus it was also easy to tell who was UNIT and who wasn't due to the uniforms.

"Let's see what we came for." Jack said pulling Lucy out of her thoughts and directing them instead to the meteorite.

As much as she would love to make sure that Gwen didn't throw the tool and hit it she was also aware of how important this incident is. Without the 'sink-or-swim' first day Gwen would have struggled in Torchwood - would struggle in Torchwood, she was getting her tenses confused. What was important though that Gwen knew exactly what she was letting herself in for and that would take a lot longer to achieve if it wasn't done on her first day. Lucy sighed, she also had to admit to herself that one of the reasons she didn't want to change anything was because she was scared of what would happen if she did. Being in the Doctor Who universe was one thing, but she wasn't sure how she would cope if she didn't have the future knowledge, no matter how difficult it made things. It was like a safety blanket, she had knowledge of what to do in certain situations and she hoped she would be able to put that knowledge to its best use.

Owen immediately started scanning it with a piece of basic - but good and useful - field equipment.

"What do we know?" Jack asked

"Bog-standard space debris" Owen replied glancing up from the scanner, which he was lighting with his torch, to look up at Gwen and smirk, "That's a technical term"

"Yeah, thanks" Gwen replied as she moved to look at it from a different angle. No one moved to stop her, the first time they had seen anything something from space like this, they had taken the time to look at it as well. It was a moment in your life that, providing you didn't leave Torchwood, you would never forget. This was the moment when you truly realised how small your life was in regards to the universe, it was at this point that you knew if Torchwood was the right job for you.

Lucy smiled as she remembered her own moment, it was when she was first properly introduced to the 'pet' pterodactyl - she had spent at least 15 minutes just gazing at Myfwany and realising that everything she knew about a TV show was real and that she was going to be given the chance to see a small part of the universe. It was a humbling experience.

"Take all the readings and let's get out of here" Jack said to Owen, Tosh and Lucy who immediately got to work.

 

Due to Lucy's failings with technology she was relegated to scraping off a bit of the surface dust so that they could try and find out where it came from later on as well as getting out the right equipment for Tosh. It wasn't the most exciting stuff, especially as Lucy's interests lay in other directions and mainly included actually dealing with creatures, and an awful lot of running. Lucy smiled to herself as the Chameleon Circuit song started playing in her head, although she groaned when she realised it was just a couple of lines because she knew it would be going round her head for days and as it wasn't on her ipod she had no way of listening to full track.

"Make yourself useful, sweetheart." Owen said, calling over to Gwen. "Pass us the big chisel from the toolbox."  
"Not sweetheart" Gwen replied, Lucy busied herself with gathering more of the surface dust from one of the slightly deeper holes so she wouldn't be able to stop it happening even if she wanted to - not without potentially causing the same problem herself. "Gwen. One syllable. I'm sure you can manage it."  
Lucy also decided it was best not to tell Gwen that antagonising Owen like that was not the best idea as it would just make his sarcastic nature worse as and he would start doing things on purpose simply because it annoyed you. This was something that Gwen would have to learn for herself as she was pretty sure it didn't come under her remit of teaching the Welsh woman the ropes.

"Not Sweet Cheeks? Freckles? New Girl?" Owen mocked her, Gwen bent down for the chisel that Owen had asked for.

"It's a shame your tool's not big enough for the job, _darling_." She said, sarcasm dripping off that last word, Jack laughed and Tosh smiled as she caught Lucy's eye. Gwen threw the chisel in Owen's direction "Catch"  
"No!" Owen shouted but it was too late, the chisel landed in the meteorite "Shit." He summed up what they were all thinking as a blue light shone from behind the chisel.

 

They all stared at it for a second until a gas started to be released and it jolted them all back to life, Jack threw them all gas masks and put one over Gwen's face himself. The pink/purple gas seemed to look around for a bit before it shot up to the sky.

The captain looked at Gwen and raised an eyebrow- he was not impressed. Jack lowered his gas mask and started issuing orders.

"Tosh, Owen, Lucy, start tiding this area up. Right now it's not important, all we have is a piece of rock, the empty spaceship. We need to get back to the hub and find out where that gas went. I'm going to call Ianto and let him know, see if he can find out anything for us to get started with when we get back to the hub."

"I'm so sorry." Gwen said.

"You stay there and don't throw anything." Jack ordered her as he pulled his phone out of his pocket ready to call Ianto, he lightened the order by smiling to let her know that he wasn't completely serious.

 

It didn't take long for them to pack everything up and they were ready to go before Jack had finished on the phone. As they walked up and back to the SUV one of the soldiers stopped them.

"What was that gas?"  
"That's confidential." Jack replied, using his 'I'm-in-charge-and-I-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think' voice.

"You need to tell us what it was, what if it could hurt someone?"

Gwen looked as though she was going to speak and apologise again but Lucy just stared at her coldly and shook her head, saying something now could only make it worse.

"I'm sorry Major." Jack said seriously not giving the soldier any ground. "But this is Torchwood business not the Army's, this is our investigation so I do not _need_ to do anything and if you could please move your men from our scene within the next couple of hours it would be appreciated. Now if you don't mind we've got work to do and you are standing in our way."

The major automatically moved out of their way and they walked back to the SUV in silence - in the usual formation.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

No one spoke again until Owen was driving the SUV back into Cardiff and they were nearing the hub, it was Gwen who broke the silence. Tosh was focussed on the screen and Owen was focussing on the road so they didn't have to say anything. Jack was already planning ahead for what they would look for if Ianto didn't find them something, and Lucy was busy trying to work out how she would help Carys but still not change the episode.

"I'm so sorry."  
"For future situations." Lucy said sarcastically, "we don't break meteorites and release potentially dangerous gases. I think it's rule number 78, something like that. Not at the very top but definitely one of importance that you should know. "

"I'm really _really_ sorry." Gwen said again, as she was sat in the middle of the car she could look at all of them.

"Lucy calm down." Jack said simply, "Gwen stop apologising."  
"Jack she just released an alien gas." Owen wasn't impressed, as he pulled into the underground car park "She should be apologising."

"I honestly am sorry." Gwen repeated, her Welsh accent was strong due to her emotions and her guilt. Lucy had noticed that Ianto's voice did the same thing, when he was feeling intense emotions his Welsh accent got noticeably stronger; the only other time it did that was when he was trying to flirt with Jack a bit to make sure that he didn't find out about the Cyberwoman that was currently living in Torchwood's basement.

 

They walked into the hub, ignoring Gwen's continual apology,

"I'm so sorry."  
"Seriously, stop saying that." Jack turned to look at her.

"I am though, I mean really..." She stopped and looked at them as they passed her on the way to their desks, "I mean really, really sorry. God I can't believe it."

"Didn't they teach you health and safety in the police?" Owen asked

"Well you were all throwing things at each other." Gwen replied slightly feebly

"We didn't miss." Owen said harshly.

"I'll sort it. Whatever happens, I'll deal with it" Gwen was being decisive although she realised less than a second or so later that she had no idea what it was let alone how to deal with it. "What do you think has happened? I mean it was just gas, wasn't it? Can't be too bad. Can it?"  
"And in the whole of human history, gas never hurt anyone." Lucy scoffed and Owen nodded.

"On the plus side, we've got good evidence." Jack said, his voice loud and cutting Owen off before he could say anything. "Relatively undamaged."

"On the downside, there's an alien on the loose, we don't know where it is, why it's here or what it's going to do." Owen added

"Don't forget that it's a gaseous form and therefore we have no way of knowing how it's going to act, I mean it could possess someone for all we know." Lucy said, trying not to be too obvious with the idea of possession.  
"Alright you two stop it." Jack ordered and Gwen sighed

"This is the worst first day ever."  
"We all make mistakes. Just get over it." Her boss replied kindly "I seem to remember that neither Owen or Lucy settled in to Torchwood completely cleanly either."

"I bet they didn't set an alien gas on the loose" Gwen said morosely.

"No." Jack agreed "they didn't do that. But our job now is to find and recover whatever it was that came out of there." Before anyone else could say anything Ianto coughed to get their attention.

"This might help. Nightclub death, been phoned into 999. Circumstances are a little unusual. Might be connected."

Gwen grabbed the information off Ianto and raised her eyebrows in shock as she read.

"This, this isn't normal."  
"What have you got?" Jack asked

"A kid died and turned into dust at the point of orgasm." Ianto replied as he could see that Gwen was trying to make sense of the report and was starting to realise that Torchwood literally dealt with anything and everything.

"Yeah." Jack nodded as he shut the lid on the meteorite sample, "I can see how that's unusual. Let's go then"

"Thanks for finding it Ianto." Lucy said, she had decided to make a point of saying please and thank you to Ianto every time. The way that everyone else in the hub treated him had been getting on her nerves and the fact that Gwen automatically fell into the same habit was not something she was happy about. Ianto may be the archivist and not go out into the field but he was still a member of Torchwood and it was time that he was recognised as such.

"No problem." Ianto replied giving Lucy a weird look.

 

They all jumped out of the SUV and into the nightclub walking straight past the police, all of them apart from Gwen. Lucy sighed when she saw that Gwen hadn't followed her into the club, Jack gave her a look to remind her that the ex-cop was her responsibility and Lucy walked back down the corridor to find Gwen talking with Andy.

"I meant to call it's been a bit of a whirlwind." Gwen was saying.

"Go on then, tell us all." Andy prompted her, desperate to find out all the gossip.  
"Gwen!" Lucy said loudly from the doorway, "Gossip and catch up with friends in your own time, we've got a dead person to deal with."

Gwen looked at Andy and pulled a face, "Sorry, you can get away now. No point you freezing you arse off out here."  
"Get your arse inside now!" Lucy said forcefully and Gwen ran inside, Lucy didn't follow her instead she walked up to talk to Andy and the other cop.

"Sorry about that, apparently it's my responsibility to deal with her because I'm the newest. I'll make sure to remind to her to call you - but she really can't tell you about what we do in our job - Official Secrecy Act. But she was right about one thing, you don't need to wait outside, we'll deal with it."

"So she's the boss of me now then?" Andy said and he obviously wasn't happy.

Lucy shrugged, "Sorry, that's just the way the penny falls sometimes. I've got to get back inside, have a good night Constable Davidson."  
"You too." Andy replied before realising something, "Hey, how do you know my name?"  
"We're Torchwood." Lucy said with a small grin before going back inside and finding the rest of the team in the girls loos standing around a pile of dust.

 

"You took your time." Jack commented, Lucy just shrugged.

"So, that pile of dust used to be a kid?"

"You can't really call him a kid." Tosh pointed out, "He was probably only a couple of years younger than you."

"How old are you?" Gwen asked, honestly interested. It had been bugging her that Lucy didn't look out of place inside Torchwood even though the rest of the team looked to be in their late 20s or early 30s - she would later learn that not many people in Torchwood Cardiff reached their 30th birthday, or worked for more than 4 years. It was something that would worry her when she found out, but by that time she would be in too deep and wouldn't want to leave no matter the threat. That was the problem with Torchwood, it made you not care that you were risking your life. All of the team knew that every big job could kill them, it was something that they had to simply accept and then shove to the back of their minds. In Lucy's case it was the death of her friends that she continually forced herself not to think about, and she wasn't sure which one was worse; not knowing that this could be someone's last job, or knowing that it wasn't because you already knew the circumstances of their deaths.

"Is that really important now?" Lucy asked "We've got something that turned a kid," Jack raised an eyebrow and she amended her words "ok - something that turned a guy into a pile of dust, and you want to know how old I am?"

"I was just wondering." Gwen said quietly.

"She's 23." Jack said to Gwen before looking at the bar manager, "More importantly though how did you know this used to be a body?" The Owner looked uncomfortable at the question.

"Er... I was keeping an eye on the cameras, and um I noticed... well..." It was clear that he didn't want to tell them what had really happened but they all knew what he was implying. "Bit of a shock, I tell you."

"We need to see that CCTV" Jack said and he nodded, "It's in my office." Jack raised an eyebrow at him and the owner left the toilets and showed them up to his office where the tape was still in the player. Lucy smiled a bit at the idea that they were still using tapes, it seemed so old fashioned by today's standards and even more so when she was surrounded by high-tech Torchwood equipment. She had to remind herself that it was only 2007 and although video tapes for recording purposes were dying out they were still in use; it was still expensive to record onto DVD.

The CCTV played and they all watched as at the point of orgasm the teenage boy became pure energy and a pile of dust.

"Wow" Jack said

"My God!" Tosh gasped

Gwen stumbled over her words, "He just..."  
"Came and went." Jack completed the sentence for her and Owen laughed

"Now that's how I'd like to go."  
"I'm sure we can arrange it." Tosh pointed out.  
"How can that be?" The club owner was still confused, it was as though he had tried to convince himself that he'd made it up, but now there were others who had seen the same thing he was no longer able to deny it. "It doesn't make any sense."  
"Life rarely does." Lucy said with a sigh.

"But it's not possible."  
"Well it happened so clearly it is possible." If there was one thing Lucy didn't have time for it was people who refused to believe things even when they had seen it happen.

"Do you know the girls name?" Gwen asked him "Did the two of them arrive together or meet in the club? Is she a regular? Would any of the other staff know her?"  
"I don't know." he had finally reached the end of his tether "We get hundreds of people here every weekend! We don't keep tabs."

Jack moved and clapped him on the back, "Thanks for your help, we've got everything we need. But my colleague here," he pointed at Lucy "will be taking that CCTV." He gently pushed him out of his own office, while Lucy removed the tape from the player.

"What are you talking about?" Gwen asked Jack, "We don't even know her name."

"This is Torchwood." Lucy pointed out sarcastically, "Did you really think we would need the normal Q and A session."

"Exactly." Jack agreed, "We really do have everything we need." He pulled out his a gadget from his pocket as he left the office quickly and the others all followed him

"We'll need a body from the cryo-chamber, close match to the dead guy's appearance." He gave the orders as they ran through the club. "Disfigure the face, make it look like a suicide attempt."

All of the team apart from Gwen, kept moving knowing that the sooner they found the girl and the creature the less deaths they could prevent. Gwen, however, stopped and stared at Jack.

"You have a stash of bodies?"

Lucy rolled her eyes but didn't reply to Gwen, she followed Tosh and Owen and got into the SUV. Tosh got straight to her computer and Lucy just looked at Owen who shrugged.

"Don't look at me, I deal with bodies so until we actually get one I'm useless." Lucy sighed and agreed with him.

"I feel the same but not with the body dealing bit. All we know is that the alien has taken on the host body of a young girl." She felt bad for lying and knew that there was no way she could do it for another 29 episodes. "We don't even know who the girl is."  
"Jack's finding out what he can about the gas. I'm finding the girl." Tosh said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

 

"So what do you think about the new girl then?" Owen asked, it was the first time since Gwen had started they had had a moment to talk about it

"She's naive." Lucy replied straight away and Tosh agreed, finally looking up from her computer

"She's ex-cop. It's going to take a while before she gets used to how we do things."

"Are we sticking to the plan about Jack?"   
"Yeah." Owen agreed, "We can grill her later, but for now he doesn't know that we know. Actually that's a lie I'm pretty sure he knows that you know about his little secret." Owen pointed out "There is no damn way that would not be in the TV show, plus Suzie shot him and you saw that on the CCTV. You probably know all of our secrets."  
"I wish I didn't know anything." Lucy replied, purposefully not saying anything either way about their secrets.

"You're not the only one." Owen grumbled "The worst thing is you know about my future secrets before I do. That's not fair."  
"Stop it." Tosh admonished him. "It's not Lucy's fault. She was stolen by the rift and had no choice about the matter."

"Thanks Tosh." Lucy smiled at her, "But it doesn't solve the problem."  
"Agreed." Owen added. " What about you?" Lucy was confused,

"What do you mean, what about me? I'm not planning on telling her about Jack."

"He means, do we tell her about you coming from a parallel world?" Tosh explained

"Oh." Lucy said, she honestly hadn't thought about it. "Probably not, I don't know."  
"What doesn't Lucy know?" Jack asked as he opened the door and slid into the SUV, Gwen a couple of seconds behind him.

"Anything to do with technology." Tosh said after a small pause before Owen could say anything crude.

"I'm getting better." Lucy replied automatically, grateful that her friend had covered for her.

"Lucy you say that every day" Jack laughed. "And Tosh still won't let you near any of the stuff that's not considered basic. Let's get back to the hub, I've got some information to start scanning now, and I want to find out who that girl is. The alien has definitely taken on a host body."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"So what does this do?" Gwen asked Lucy, Jack was busy doing something with a laser and a glass window with drawings on.

"I'm using satellite tracking data to determine the inward trajectory of the meteorite." Jack replied before Lucy could say anything. "One thing about Torchwood you'll need to know." He continued stopping to turn round and smirk at Lucy before going back to what he was doing "Lucy is rubbish with alien tech, or even anything above basic human tech."  
"He's trying to be funny and trying to find out which bit of space our monster for the week has come from. Besides Jack I've already warned Gwen that technology isn't my thing. You're just making yourself look stupid by repeating it."

"It's not being funny." Tosh said as she walked in and handed Jack something, "It's true."

"And anyway sometimes a little techno-babble is good for the soul."  
"Thank you Doctor Spock." Lucy grumbled and Jack laughed immediately getting the reference. Gwen looked at Owen and Tosh who shrugged.

"Another thing you need to learn." Owen said, "Jack and Lucy have a secret language and we have all given up learning about it."

Gwen decided it wasn't worth asking before going back to the original question about what her boss was doing.

"So that's like a route planner?"  
"Not fair off." Tosh replied.

"My boyfriend, Rhys, he's a transport manager. He does this sort of stuff, on a slightly smaller scale though."  
"You have a boyfriend?" Tosh was immediately interested and Lucy smiled, she liked Rhys even if she thought that he was much too good for Gwen and for Torchwood.

"Yeah." Gwen replied with a smile, turning to look at the Asian woman, "Do you?"  
"Don't have time with this job."

"What about you?" Gwen asks Owen and Lucy slightly uncomfortable at Tosh's answer. Owen just scoffed

"You've got to be joking, I get all the grief I need here."

"Owen does one-night stands, not relationships." Lucy laughed.  
"Whilst you live with your crush in some sick pretence of normality." He responded

"How many times?" Lucy sighed, "Ianto and I are _friends_! Just like I'm friends with you guys, he just happened to be the one who offered me the spare room when I started this job cause I had nowhere to live."

"You've been there nearly 3 months, any plan on moving out?"  
"Not yet, why you jealous?"  
"None of you have partners or a life outside of her?" Gwen asked, wanting confirmation.

"Just you newbie."

"I've got a younger sister." Lucy said with a shrug. "I can't see her due to certain circumstances but she does exist."

There was a brief pause while Gwen worked out how to phrase her next question.

"I'm not being rude or anything, but... well maybe I am, how do you switch off from all this stuff? What do you do to relax?"

They all looked at each other slightly uncomfortably, not sure how to answer the question. Owen was the first to speak.

"I torture people in happy relationships."

"And his liver" Lucy added, "You torture that as well."

"Just because you don't drink doesn't mean I shouldn't." Owen smirked

"I never said it did." Lucy shrugged. "You do that, and I watch a fuck lot of DVDs. Tosh reads loads and fiddles with technology, Jack stands on roofs and stares at Cardiff and Ianto makes amazing coffee and normally picks apart whatever it is that I'm watching."

"And you two claim that you're not a couple." Owen said sarcastically and Jack and Tosh gave a small laugh.

"We're not" Lucy repeated although she knew that she would never be able to change their minds and she was also acutely aware of her growing crush on the Welshman.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Gas traces confirmed as vorax and ceranium." Tosh said a couple of hours later, waking Lucy, Owen and Gwen up from their naps. It was a skill Lucy had learnt in the first week of the job and one she felt was important in passing on to Gwen, now she was her mentor.

Naps were good, naps were needed.

Torchwood days could reach 15 hours plus on one job and you had to learn to grab sleep when you could, going home wasn't necessarily an option. Also, Ianto's coffee was a life saver.

"Great" Jack said sarcastically as he walked over to Tosh's work station, "my two favourite gases. Can we do a check and find out what we know about them?"

"I'm all over it." Owen said putting down the file he was looking at before he fell asleep and starting to work on his computer.

"What's this thing doing?" Gwen asked as she woke herself up properly, gesturing to the search that was running on every work station.

"I've taken an image of the girl from the CCTV of the club. That cross-checks her face with the UK population" Tosh replied not looking up as Ianto walked around delivering the coffee. Lucy knew that he had made it to give Tosh a caffeine boost as she had stayed awake so long and to make sure that the others all woke up properly; he prided himself at being good at his job.

"And then it's my job to find out more about her." Lucy continued.

"You can't have every face in the UK on there." Gwen said getting annoyed, "That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff..."  
"Hmm..." Lucy didn't say anything but smiled at Ianto as he passed her her mug. "Thanks Yan. You're an angel."

"No problem." He replied

"Still doing that 'you' instead of 'we' thing" Jack pointed out

"Damn." Owen said as the scan finished, "119 suspects. This thing is supposed to give us a single clear match."

"The CCTV was too low res" Tosh explained, "I've tried magnifying and augmenting, but it just breaks up. Which means the software can't function properly" They could all tell she wasn't happy with the situation but also needed to remind Owen that it wasn't the problem of her software; the blame laid elsewhere.

"It's narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest for you." Ianto offered and they all stared at him, Lucy tried not to laugh because she knew and loved the line that Ianto was going to say next. "You know, the old fashioned way, with my eyes"

Lucy tried not to laugh, she really did but when Ianto pointed at his eyes and Tosh seemed so confused and annoyed that there was something that her software couldn't do it was too much. She giggled and once she started it was hard to stop.

She was living inside Torchwood, this was an actual real thing. Her life was a TV program and one she knew well. It had been odd before Gwen had started and she had known it in theory but had quickly got used to working with television characters and got to know them as people, but now that Gwen was on the team it was all different. This wasn't just working with the characters, this was living the episodes. She knew what was going to happen, she knew where to go looking to find the girl that they were all hunting for. And more than that she knew the ending, or at least an ending. It was starting to become a bit much and she couldn't help but laugh at the turn her life had taken.

Ianto raised an eyebrow at her and deftly removed the mug of coffee from her hands before she could either break it or throw coffee over herself, the computer or any other member of the team

 

"It appears that Lucy has had too much caffeine." Their boss commented as they all looked at her and she tried to get her laughter and minor breakdown under control.

"I've always got the decaf sir." Ianto said and that shocked Lucy into ceasing her laughter.

"You wouldn't dare." She breathed. "Give me my coffee, please Ianto..."

"What about the finger prints I took off the alley wall?" Gwen asked, trying to get things back on track while she worked out more about how they all worked as a team.

Tosh turned away from Lucy, who was in a staring match with Ianto for her coffee, and quickly ran the scan. It came out negative.

"it was a long shot." Gwen shrugged

"Yeah just a bit." Owen muttered

"At least I'm trying to do something."  
"No." He countered, "You're trying to do anything."

"The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club." Jack said, stopping the argument before it could begin. "Tosh, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via the street camera network?"

Tosh thought about it briefly before saying, "I'll have a go, but it will take a while to process. Every possible turn on every street corner means hundred and thousands of probabilities."

"Have a go. At least we'll know where she started the evening."

"HA!" Lucy said loudly as she got her mug back from Ianto "MY COFFEE"

"Yes Lucy." Jack sighed, not even turning round to look at her "It's your coffee, but please don't turn hysterical again."  
"This bit of the job bores me." Lucy moaned as she started to drink.

"It's necessary."  
"I know that it's still dull. Anyway, we can cross-check the 119 girls with where she started, even if Tosh just uses the first couple of corners it should cross off a fair few of the potential hosts. And what about using the CCTV from the club, we got a better look at her on that. Can't we use that to check against the 119 - I bet that crosses a bunch off as well."  
"Good idea." Jack said with a smirk, "You're not just good on the field."  
"Just because I have an idea about how to speed this bit up, doesn't stop it being boring."

"Well I know what you can do while they are working on that."

"What?"  
"Set up Gwen on the system. Obviously just the basic stuff, and she needs to fill out the standard paper work as well."  
"Joy" Lucy deadpanned before opening a software on her computer "Come on then Cooper, let's get you up and running. You'll still have to have your medical." She got out of her seat and let Gwen sit down.  
"I'm doing that tomorrow." Owen added, "Or at least the day after this is all finished."

"Well you may as well have this work station." Lucy shrugged, "I've got a small computer downstairs by the range that Tosh set up for me."  
"Only as a temporary one." Tosh chipped in, as she got on with her work.

"Well I'm sure Jack won't mind if I move down there more permanently. I've got stuff to be getting on with after all."  
"Providing you have a laptop or something that you can, and do, use regularly up here I don't like the idea of my team being separated from each other, we allowed Suzie to do her own thing and look what happened. Use the shooting range one for when we have nothing major on and you guys are all getting on with your side projects."  
"Brilliant" Lucy grinned, "Thanks Jack." She couldn't help but feel sorry for Ianto though, he was still in the area and Jack was talking about the team working as a group and keeping an eye on each other, and yet they were all happy to ignore the Welshman.

 

"I've got a hit." Ianto said ten minutes later, "Carys Jones, 17, lives at 25 West Rise. I'm patching the information through to the SUV's SatNav."  
"Ok." Jack said grabbing some protection suits, "Everyone get suited up, grab the gas masks on your way out. Let's go."  
While everyone was rushing to get ready Lucy quickly pulled the protection suit over her clothes and walked over to Ianto.

"Thanks Ianto."  
"It's my job." He replied with a shrug,

"I know, but you still found her. So thanks and well done."

"You should go." He gestured, Gwen was worriedly waiting not quite sure what to do. Lucy sighed but nodded.

"See you in a bit. Come on Cooper, first proper time out on the field. Rule 1. Listen to Jack. Rule 2. Don't get yourself killed - I don't want all the extra paperwork that would cause me." Gwen gave a small smile as the two went down to the car park, she wasn't quite sure if Lucy was joking or not but decided to act as though she was. "Rule 3. The Doctor lies, no sorry that's rule number 1."  
"Whose the Doctor? Owen?" Gwen asked

"Nah, he's _a_ doctor. _The_ Doctor is a friend of Jack's and one of my hero's. He's not here and you'll find out about him some day. I just wanted to say it that's all." She stopped suddenly as she remembered something else. "Also, another rule 1. Don't wander off"

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Half an hour later they were walking Carys into the hub. Tosh and Owen immediately took their findings to the computers, whilst Lucy moved to go put the weapons away.

"See what you can find out from her." Jack ordered Gwen who replied both worried and surprised that Jack would trust her that much so early on.

"Well aren't you going to help me?" She asked as Jack started to walk up to his office. "I don't know what I'm doing."

"Try not to say that in front of any prisoner" Lucy called over

"Lucy will come and help you once she's done with the weapons." Jack added, "She's your 'mentor'"  
"Not by choice" Lucy shouted over again, "Take her down to the cells and talk to her, I'll be five minutes."

They watched as Gwen slightly awkwardly walked the woman/alien through the hub and down into the cells.

"It does feel a bit mean." Tosh said when she knew that Gwen could no longer hear her.

"She's got to get thrown into the deep end." Jack shrugged, "Torchwood doesn't have a gradual sliding scale, and even if we did with a team this size we wouldn't have time to use it."  
"I'll go down and help her in a bit." Lucy said as she disassembled the last gun, "It's not like we can't watch her from up here. But she let this creature out so know she needs to face the consequence. Only this time the consequence is some sort of sex gas monster that has taken on the host of at 21 year old."  
"I'm not saying it's wrong." Tosh agreed, "It just feels a bit mean."

"Well now I've finished with these," Lucy gestured at the guns on the sofa "I'll go down and help her. Also I've been thinking, Gwen doesn't need to know my history, I'm just another Torchwood Agent. It's not like any of us are going to tell her about how we joined Torchwood - I don't see why she should know."  
"Because you know about her personal future." Jack offered

"That's not going to change if we tell her or not, it'll just change how she thinks about me and make her paranoid." Lucy shrugged. "I don't want her knowing Jack."

Jack stared at Lucy for half a minute before nodding, "Ok. We try to make sure Gwen doesn't know - you're going to have to tell her at some point."  
"I know, I'd just like to be normal for a while."

"And you need to tell me when you know an episode, that way I know how much you are available to help."

"I can't tell you what's 'supposed' to happen." She said with a shrug  
"Agreed."  
"Deal." Lucy walked down towards the cells to join Gwen. "Oh, by the way. This episode is called Day 1."

Jack gave a small laugh, "Of course it is."

 

Lucy arrived at the cells just in time to see Gwen start to snog Carys, as she knew it wouldn't be dangerous - just humiliating - for the newest member of the team she didn't stop the couple straight away.

15 seconds later, she announced her presence by opening the door and pulling Gwen off the other woman and pushing her out into the corridor before following herself and closing Carys back into the cell.

"For the record -" Lucy said harshly, "interrogations don't involve getting off with the subject. Especially not ones that kill through sex." She turned to look at Carys, "Am I speaking to the human or the alien?"

"She broke my ship" Carys responded and Lucy nodded in understanding,

"The alien then. She didn't do it on purpose. Why have you taken Carys body?"  
"Why shouldn't I? Arghhhhh" Carys collapsed in on herself in pain but Lucy made no move to go and help her even though she wanted to help.

"Carys?" She asked kindly and the girl nodded

"Where am I? Who are you?"  
"What can you remember?"  
"I was in the club, and there was this pink gas and... oh god..."

"You're here so we can keep an eye on you and keep you safe. We're trying to help you."  
"By locking me up?"

"You've got a creature living inside you Carys and it's already killed once." Gwen said and Lucy nodded.

"It's the only way we can keep you and others safe Carys."

"I'm losing."

"Don't you dare give up." Lucy said firmly "I am not going to tell your father that he is never going to see his daughter again. You stay strong and stay human. I'll get you a book or a magazine, something to keep your mind busy. We've got to go back to work, see you later Carys."  
"Thank you." Carys replied

"No problem." Lucy smiled, "I'll try and make sure the mag has some sexy guys in. Orlando Bloom or Johnny Depp?"

"Either." Carys laughed and Lucy was glad to see her smile, it might make no difference in the long run but for now at least she wasn't thinking about the thing inside her. She was just a normal girl. Even if she was in a cell.

"Come on Gwen." Lucy walked upstairs and Gwen gave a small look back before starting to follow. When they reached the stairs, Gwen's phone went off and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"It's Rhys." Gwen said after glancing at it.

"Well, tell lover boy we still want you and he'll have to wait." She sighed, "I'll see you upstairs in a few minutes."

"Thanks." Gwen said before answering the phone call. "Hiya babe."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Five minutes later, Gwen, Owen and Jack all walked up from the cells; all three looking angry and annoyed.

"What's up?" Lucy asked

"Newbie tried to strangle me." Owen replied as he walked over to his desk

"We've all tried to strangle you in the past."  
"Yeah but not on your first day you haven't."  
"What did you do?" Tosh asked from her desk, as she stopped working to look over at Owen

"I may have mentioned that I was impressed with her interrogation technique that's all."

"Well then you deserved it."  
"And as I pointed out." Jack added, "Throttling of the staff is my job. I'm all for delegation but there are some things that I like to do myself."

Lucy rolled her eyes as Jack once again managed to make everything sound sexual.

"So..." Ianto said as the cog door rolled backwards and he walked into the hub holding a cardboard box. "Whose for Chinese?"

"Yes please." Jack said, "We'll go up to the conference room. What did you get?"  
"All the usuals; only in larger portions so Gwen could have some." Ianto replied. "Tosh can you grab the plates?"  
"Sure" The Japanese woman replied, "and a fork for you as well Lucy, don't worry I haven't forgotten. Gwen?"  
"Yeah, what?" Gwen was confused as to what she was being asked

"Chopsticks or a fork?"

"Fork please." Gwen replied in understanding. "I've never been able to get chopsticks to work."

"No problem."

 

Soon they were all in the conference room, eating, laughing, telling stories and enjoying each other's company although Gwen wasn't as involved as the rest of them. She felt left out of this small family even though she knew it was going to take time for her to work her way into the team and how it subconsciously worked, it still upset her.

"She says... she said" Jack was finishing a story and the rest of them were laughing as they knew the ending. "'If I'd known what he was, I never would have married him'"

"She knew" Tosh added "She knew all along."  
"She didn't care." Owen pointed out and Ianto automatically picked up the story.

"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub."  
"Honestly" Lucy said, "I swear the only reason she cared about that was because Mr Muscle wouldn't wash it out."

"Always a big give away." Jack laughed, "aliens have no sense of household hygiene. Which reminds me." He got up from the table "Gotta pee."  
"We didn't need to know that." Lucy said rolling her eyes as she returned to her food.

 

The minute Jack was gone the mood turned sombre and they all looked at Gwen.

"So what's he told you?" Owen asked

"What about?" Gwen replied

"Himself." Tosh said as though it was obvious.  
"You've been here longer than I have." Gwen pointed out.

"We were banking on you."  
"You're a copper, you're trained to ask questions." Lucy continued the interrogation even though the others knew that she knew the answers to most of their questions as well as how much Gwen knew. In that moment Lucy was completely grateful that Torchwood had her back, she didn't need to be involved in this conversation but the rest of the team knew that if she wasn't Gwen would want to know why and then the truth about her past would be known. By keeping her involved it kept her secret no matter how much they didn't like what that secret involved.

"You don't know anything?"  
"Not who he is, not where he's form." Owen replied taking another drink from his beer bottle. "Nothing, except him being gay."

"No, he's not. Really, do you think? No." Gwen said and Tosh and Lucy agreed.

"Owen does." Tosh said, "Lucy and I don't."  
"And I don't care" Ianto added, Lucy rolled her eyes at that thinking that Ianto would certainly start to care when they got together in the next year or so.

"Period military is not the dress code of a straight man." Owen said as though it was the most obvious reason for his argument in the world and nothing could defeat it.

"I think it suits him." Gwen said with a smile and Lucy could see the beginnings of a school yard crush. "Sort of classic."

"Exactly." Tosh agreed, "I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough."  
"I honestly think he doesn't care if it's a male, woman or an it. As long as it's alive." Lucy said "I'm not even sure if he thinks about it."  
"We know he's from America right?" Gwen asked

"We don't even know that for sure." Owen said

"No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last 50 years."

"Changing his name and deleting records isn't too difficult though." Lucy pointed out. "I mean I couldn't do it, but Tosh you could do it easily, you too Ianto."

They both nodded their heads in recognition and agreement.

"Maybe his identity is classified." Gwen offered as she leant over to get another prawn cracker

"Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon." Ianto said.

"He must have his reasons for wanting to keep things secret." Gwen pointed out.

"Sure" Owen agreed "Doesn't stop me wanting to know what those reasons are though."

 

The group fell into silence for the first time since they started eating. Gwen had passed their test, she wasn't going to tell them the little she knew about Jack, even though that little amount was a big deal - the ability to not stay dead was something you would want to know about your boss. However just because Gwen didn't tell them and they would now accept her into the group did not mean that were going to tell her what they had learnt up to this point. It only meant that they would keep her involved in all further discoveries about their time-travelling boss.

The lack of conversation meant that they could hear the background computer noise of the CCTV of Carys cell, she was sobbing.

"What's that sound?" Gwen asked as Jack walked back in and turned the screen on. Carys was sitting on the piece of concrete that passed as a bed, sobbing her heart out with her knees pulled tight to her chest. Gwen put down her fork and walked towards the screen, never taking her eyes off the image.

"What are we doing eating Chinese while a girl fights for her life?"

"Actually," Jack replied. "while we've been eating the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys. Profiling her blood, metabolism, organs, skin, the works. So we can see what effect the alien is having on her. They've also been taking samples of the air in the cell, so we can analyse any changes in the environment around her." Lucy could see on Gwen's face that she wasn't impressed and could feel the tell-tell sign of her fast temper rising. In the second she heard Carys' tears Gwen had judged them all and found them wanting. She had no idea what this job entailed, she had been doing it for less than 12 hours and already she thought that they weren't doing it properly.

Jack raised his eyes at Gwen as he ate another mouthful of his dinner before speaking again.

"Now, is that enough? Do you want more? 'Cause it kind of gets boring." He gave a small derisive laugh.

Gwen just stared at them all, pity in her eyes.

"You've been hidden down here too long." She made eye contact with every member of the team and Lucy once more got the impression that she wasn't good enough, that Gwen thought her just a kid who had got lucky. "Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human."

 

Lucy knew there was no defence of her actions, but she had already been trying to control her temper and an insult on that level was not something she was going to let pass. The red mist descended and she growled as she leapt out of her seat, ready to bash Gwen into little tiny pieces, although even in her haze of anger she realised that sounded warped. Owen jumped out his chair as well and forcibly held Lucy back as she struggled in his arms. She had already been in a bad mood and had guessed what Gwen thought of them, but actually hearing it was another matter entirely.

“Let me go.” She said trying to pull out of Owen's grip.

“Not until you calm down.”

“I damn well know what it means to be human.” Lucy was still growling in rage at the insult, “How dare... You have no clue. None at all!” She spat the words at Gwen and was glad to see that Gwen was scared of her and what she could do.

“Right now you are acting more like a wolf than a human.” Jack said sternly, “Calm down and stop growling. She didn’t mean you.”

“I don’t care, we’re all damn well human. She can’t...” Lucy stopped growling, as she tried to get control of her anger. Although, Owen still didn’t let her go as he could feel her still shaking with rage.

“Gwen, just go and get on with some work. Show us what it means to be human in the 21st Century. Go.” Jack said gently pushing her out of the room so he could deal with Lucy.

Gwen left the room, slightly scared of Lucy but wanting to prove to Jack she was worthy of this job, and wanting to solve the problem that she had caused.

Owen released his hold on Lucy, once Jack had moved to cover the door to make sure that Lucy wasn’t going to chase after Gwen. Lucy screamed and threw her plate at the wall, the rest of the team decided that it was best for them to leave and let the boss calm their team mate down.

 

“Feel better?” Jack asked with a wry smile

“No,” She replied although her anger induced haze was starting to go and she was now angry at herself for allowing it to take such control rather than her controlling it.

“Thought you were going to turn green at one point.” Jack laughed and Lucy gave a slight smile back as she sat on the floor, pulling her knees in tight.

“Sorry Jack. I really thought I had it under control. I honestly did, I've not lost my temper like that for years I swear. At least now you know why I don’t drink – I’m damn scared of what I could do, as well as other things.” She sighed, “God I was literally growling at Gwen.”

“Well you definitely made an impact that no one else could have done. Are you sure you’re not a werewolf?”

The question made the required impact, and Lucy laughed. “Pretty sure. I’ve been here for a couple of full moons now. And although my temper is more volatile once a month, it’s doesn’t follow the moon.”

Jack thought for a bit, “Come on, you can go play at the shooting range. Get rid of some of that anger that way, and then you can apologise to Gwen later.”

Lucy got up but shock her head, “I’ll apologise now. But yeah, playing with a gun sounds like fun.” She smiled, “Thanks Jack. And I really am sorry. Most insults I’ve learnt to just let roll off my back – I’ve had enough of them directed at me. But to say that I’m not human, and to imply she’s the only one who cares what happens to Carys. I don’t know.” She pulled at her plait, “I just let it overtake me. I was planning to bash her into little bits. Even though I knew that that was literally nonsense.”

“It’s ok Lucy. Like I said, let’s just get you using a gun and move on with life and help Carys yeah?”

She nodded, “Yeah. She needs some food, so I’ll take the pasta I cooked earlier but never got round to eating. I’ll go down in a bit and I’ll apologise to Gwen on the way as well”

“No problem. But next time, try and get down to the shooting range before you start attacking your colleagues. Might be better for everyone.” Jack left her to it, and she watched him talk briefly with the rest of the team as he passed them on the way to his office.

 

Lucy quickly tidied up the table and walked out of the conference/dining room. Owen was the first to spot her and started clapping.

"Oh well done, that is what I call a perfect way to end her already brilliant first day on the job."

"Thanks!" Lucy replied sarcastically, "I'm glad I achieved what I was aiming for."

"Well you nearly scared me, and I'm not a girl."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not." Lucy said slightly confused before walking over to Gwen.

"I... er... I just wanted to say sorry. You _can't_ make that claim about us after knowing us for less than 12 hours but I shouldn't have reacted like that. I can offer loads of excuses but no real reason. Sorry Gwen."

"No problem." Gwen said quickly "just don't do it again."

"Don't make judgements like that about me again and we'll be fine." Lucy countered "Once you're finished with telling us all about being human come down to the range. I'll see if your skills are up to Torchwood standards."

"I've never used a gun before, I was on the beat." Gwen replied slightly worried and Owen called over to them.  
"You're almost a newbie, should you really be teaching her about Torchwood standards?"  
"You're just jealous because you know you couldn't beat me if you tried Owen!" Lucy shouted back before turning back to Gwen. "That's fine, I'll get you decent with at least one gun. And until then, don't actually shoot it and look threatening?" She shrugged, and grabbed the thermos flask from on the desk. "I'm going to take some food down to Carys and then go onto the range, call me if you need me. Just um... do whatever research or work that you think needs to be done. We'll start your gun training once this incident has been dealt with. See you later."

 

Lucy walked down to Carys cell. "Do you mind standing at the back while I bring your food in?"

"You think I'm going to hurt you?"  
"I think you're a scared girl who wants to get out of the cell you're trapped in, as well as having a creature inside you that is desperate to get out as well. It's just a precaution. I mean the foods not much, pasta, ham and a tomato sauce but it should still be hot or at least hotish. So," she asked the question again. "Are you willing to stand at the back of the cell while I give you food?"

Carys nodded and took a couple of steps back, Lucy opened the door and immediately noticed the pheromones in the air. The concept of snogging the teenager sounded the most appealing one in that instant but she forced herself to ignore it - the thought of Ianto and his small smile as she walked into the kitchen half asleep every morning, flashed into her mind but it was gone before she had time to properly notice its existence. She walked out of the cell again and shut the door, breathing in the clear air grateful for the unfogging of her mind that came half a second later.  
"Sorry I've not got that magazine for you yet. I'll speak to Ianto about what we've got upstairs and get the next person to come down with it."  
"Please help me." Carys begged walking up to the door and putting her hands on it, Lucy could see she was fighting tears.

"We're doing the best we can Carys." Lucy replied, "I promise. You've got the best team in the world working on it. You're going to be fine."

She walked away from the cells and towards what was quickly becoming known as 'Lucy's area', the shooting range.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy sent a quick text to Ianto about a magazine for Carys before picking up the .45 she had been practising with the day before as well as the ear protectors. She ran her eyes over the targets and made a mental note to get Ianto to buy some more as they were full of holes. Lucy also decided she was going to take all the empty beer bottles and line them up so she could practice precision shooting as well.

An hour later, the red light that had been installed started flashing and Lucy quickly pulled off the ear protectors and ran up to the main area, the gun still in her hand. Jack had installed three lights into the shooting range so that they could communicate with Lucy while she was down there; red, yellow and green. Green just meant she should come upstairs but it wasn't an emergency, so far that had only been used to tell her the take-away had arrived. Yellow was for slightly more important things, such as a debriefing or a minor problem. Red meant that something was wrong and she was needed straight away - whatever it was, it was an emergency.

 

She got upstairs to see Gwen and Tosh walking back into the hub while Jack put the Doctor's hand into a new jar.

"What happened?" She asked, although she was pretty sure of what the answer was going to be.

"Owen was being a _cock_." Gwen replied.

"Owen's always a cock." Lucy said confused, "Doesn't mean you need to send the emergency signal."  
"Carys escaped." Tosh explained. "Owen went down to check on her and she took his swipe card, as well as all of his clothes."

"I didn't need that mental image." Lucy said with a small shake of her head. "So what do we do now, apart from the obvious which is find her."

"Well after all I said to Jack, a severed hand seemed to be more important to him than a young girls life." Gwen was not impressed and it was obvious in the way she spoke

"And you don't know or understand why that is so shut up." Lucy said quickly. "It's still only your first day remember."  
"Calm down Lucy." Jack said soothingly before looking at Gwen. "If it's so important to you, _you_ find her. Use your friends in the police to do something useful."  
"I'll call them and get them to put out an ABP. Woman possessed by gas knobbing fellows to death."

Owen ran up from the med bay, he had obviously got his spare set of clothes and lab coat while the others were chasing Carys.

"Oi! You'd better get in here." They all walked over to the bay to see what was so important.

"So I'm trying to interpret the results of the bio-scan, yeah?" He gestured at the rat to show that that was what it was there for. "But it's all just a mess. Like there is no definitive readings. Because everything in her body keeps changing, nothing stays constant. So as soon as you think you've got something clear, the metabolic rate, the blood pressure, whatever, it all goes wild again."

"Because she's fighting the alien for control of her own body?" Jack asked

"Exactly."  
"So does that mean it's changing from human into the gas or whatever body the gas normally uses?" Lucy asked

"Probably. So I decided to do a comparative diagnostic, recreate the circumstances, accelerate the process a little, see what's going to happen to Carys."

"Thanks." Gwen replied and Lucy just gave him a small smile to know that she was grateful as well.

"I infected the rat with a of the vorax and ceranium gas traces we found down at the crash site and at the nightclub."

"Looks fine so far." Tosh commented.

"Once that gases start to flow around the body the party really starts." He projected the computer screen onto the wall so everyone could see what was happening. "The heart rate triples, the brain swells, pressing against the skull." He pointed at each section of the body as he spoke about it. "As that keeps going, the lungs begin to shrink making it impossible to breathe, the pressure increases on all the internal organs, until..."

The rat in the box exploded and they all flinched in surprise and horror. Owen just smirked and looked quite impressed with himself.

"Rat jam!"  
"And that's what's going to happen to Carys." Gwen asked horrified but Lucy had a different question.

"You timed that perfectly. Just _how_ many rats have you exploded to know how long it would take and what would happen, and more importantly have you told Ianto he has to clean exploded rats from those boxes yet?"

"That was my fourth rat and..." He pretended to think about it. "No and it's his job to tidy up after us."  
"His job is as the archivist." Lucy countered

"He's the tea-boy."

Jack stepped in before it could turn into an argument.

"Lucy, Ianto accepted the role knowing that he would have to tidy around after us, he's the Alfred to our Batman. Owen, you have to tell him and it isn't really part of the job description to clean up your experiments no matter how useful they are."

"'I'm losing'. That's what she said to me." Gwen said still thinking about Carys and the rat.

"Right now, it's a struggle between where Carys ends and the alien begins." Owen admitted as he pulled his gloves off and threw them in the bin.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"We have to think like her." Gwen was saying as she stood in front of the board of pictures and information she had put together, trying to work out where Carys had gone. "Put ourselves in her place. It's the only way to find her"

"Except we don't know what her controlling impulse is by now. Carys or the alien inside." Jack got up from his desk to join them, "The last thing I saw was a fight for control."  
"And even if Carys is winning right now she's just a scared kid." Lucy added, "Hardly thinking straight even if she wasn't fighting for her own body."  
"The overriding factor for the parasite is to have sex." Tosh said and Lucy recognised the tone of voice she used when she was thinking about a problem and was about to solve it. "It's a survival instinct. That's bound to be the strongest drive."

"So you're Carys." Gwen said continuing Tosh's train of thought, "You're desperate to have sex because that's what the thing inside you needs. But you know it will kill, where would you go?"

"I'd come round and shag you." Owen said dryly, Lucy rolled her eyes at him and the rest just looked impressed. "What?!" He said defensively "It was a joke, can't I have a joke with my team-mates?"  
"Right now?" Tosh replied, "No."

"Well I'd go after people I didn't like, people I wouldn't care about if they died. People who had made my life hell." Lucy said drawing their minds back to the problem in hand and not Owen.

"What about brothels, lap dance clubs?" Jack offered

"I think Lucy's right." Tosh mused, "Maybe not people who had made my life hell but I'd definitely go after my exes."

They all thought about it briefly before agreeing.

"Ok." Jack said as he went back into his office to grab his great coat, "Let's get to the SUV, Gwen grab any information you have about any ex boyfriends."  
"I've only got one" Gwen said grabbing a couple of the emails, "He was cheating on his girlfriend with her and has a kid."

"Sounds like a good target. You got a name?"

"Eddie... Eddie Gwynne."

"Great." Tosh can you find out where he lives while we go there?"  
"Easily." Tosh almost looked insulted that Jack thought she couldn't.

"Right that's what we do, come on."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

They had got to Eddie's house too late and, as Gwen didn't have any other information on old boyfriends, were now driving round the city centre hoping that they would find her.

"So what's our next move?"  
"Stop the entire city of Cardiff from shagging?" Owen offered

"Put Bromide in the water supply?" Gwen joked as she started to sag in the back seat of the SUV from tiredness. Torchwood was an exhausting job and she was just beginning to really understand that. This job had started on a Friday night at about 8:30pm, it was now nearing 5pm on Saturday, her body was starting to remind her that sleep was important and that just taking naps where needed was not enough.

"Too hit and miss." Jack replied seriously.

"Yeah and the water company got really annoyed the last time we did that." Owen added, Gwen sat up in her seat as she was once more reminded of the power that Torchwood had and what it meant to be a part of this team.

"It could have used anybody in Cardiff, why hers?" Tosh asked as though that might hold the clue

"I just presumed it chose her randomly." Gwen said with a shrug

"It's mining Carys life to get what it needs."Jack thought out loud "Anything you can think of?"

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"Well you did all the research." Lucy pointed out, "What about her job anything useful in that?"

"She's just a temp, a receptionist."  
"Well where is she temping?" Lucy pressed the point hoping someone would work out the answer, when she had time she was going to make a list of rules for herself about how much she was allowed to change or do in advance next time she knew an episode but for now she would just have to prompt them and hope that they got to the answer in time.

"I'll pull her file up." Tosh said and quickly did so. "Conway Clinic."

"You're joking." Owen breathed as the implications of what Tosh said hit home, everyone apart from Lucy looked at him waiting to expand his point.   
"What's up?"  
"It's a bloody fertility clinic. Sperm donor, an unlimited supply of orgasmic energy without all the build-up."  
"To say that we're in deep shit would only just cover it." Lucy sighed, "I think that would count as the perfect hit."

Jack turned the SUV around and started driving back into the centre of town while Tosh brought the clinic up on the computer map so she could give directions or put it onto the SatNav when needed.

Lucy started pulling the guns out from underneath the seats, once she'd checked it was ok she passed it to one of the other team members. Gwen took it off her uncomfortably,

"What's this for?"  
"Do you really need me to answer that?" Lucy asked as she passed one forward to Owen.

"I've never used a gun. I told you that earlier, Lucy." Lucy just shrugged.  
"You were in the police." Jack said surprised

"I was on the beat."  
"And like I said earlier as well. Hold it and look threatening, try not to kill one of us and leave the safety on. " Lucy said dryly now passing out the ammunition.

 

"What do we do if we find her? How are we going to get that thing out of her?" Gwen asked

"Judging by the test results, the gas needed a host because prolonged exposure to our atmosphere is poisonous to it." Tosh explained.

"But our bodies are the perfect environment." Lucy continued

"So if we isolate it from Carys' body..." Jack said and Lucy nodded

"It won't survive for long." Owen agreed

"Sounds like we have ourselves a plan."  
"But how are we going to do that?" Gwen insisted

"Faith, hope and a little bit of pixie dust." Lucy said sarcastically and Owen snorted in laughter. "Look Gwen, don't question the plan. We can work out the problems with it as we go."  
"It's a pretty big problem, and it's not a plan - we're forcing it to die."  
"Just like it did those poor blokes."  
"And what about Carys?"

"Better start praying we get to her in time." Owen said seriously and the SUV fell silent as Jack continued to drive.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Three minutes later and after breaking four driving laws they pulled up outside the clinic. Jack parked the car right outside the door - breaking the fifth law - and they all jumped out, guns in hand, ready for the attack. Gwen was positioned in the middle of the group as they all recognised her as the one that needed the most protection.

Jack kicked down the door, there was no one in the main reception so they moved further into the building. Gwen was the only one to keep her gun lowered as the rest all kept it ready to use at any moment. There was one man sitting in the second reception area, he was reading a magazine and jumped up in surprise when they appeared.

"OUT!" Jack ordered him, "Get as far away from here as you can."

The man looked at them nervously and nodded, he ran from the room grabbing his bag as he did so.   
"Spread out." Jack ordered his team, "Check every room. Gwen, stay with Lucy."

Every door that they opened was to a small room and in each room there was a pile of black dust that they knew was originally a human.

"How many more?" Gwen breathed and Lucy shook her head

"I don't know, but now is not the time to be going into shock. Stay with me!"

 

"In here!" Owen shouted from downstairs and they ran to join him, blocking Carys into another reception room.

"Nowhere to run."

Carys looked around but they were fanned so that she couldn't get past one of them without being in the gun-line of another.

"All the sex, all we see, all we think. So much beauty and so much fear. We want it but we're so afraid of-" She was unable to finish what she was saying as she screamed and doubled over in pain. Gwen moved to catch her automatically, but Lucy was closer. She helped the younger girl to the floor.

"The strain on her body is too much." Owen explained, "any second now she's rat jam."

"One more." Carys said, begged, to Lucy. "One more and I'll be strong. Each time it works less. Each time the feeling is weaker. One more, make me feel alive. Make me feel human"

"I can't Carys." Lucy said sadly, she pulled the girl in for a hug in the way she did with Becky. "I just can't." Jack stowed his gun in his holster and joined them.

"I can." He moved to give Carys a kiss

"Jack?" Gwen said from the side, warning him.

"I've got a surplus of life, I'm giving it away." He snogged Carys and the girl glowed with the energy. Lucy, Tosh and Owen all looked at each other and silently agreed to file it under the 'talk about later' category.

"That was just the kiss." Jack said with a small smirk at Carys when they stopped and she stopped glowing, "Imagine the buzz you would get from the rest." Carys grinned and then fainted in his arms. "Wasn't exactly the reaction I anticipated"  
"No" Lucy agreed, "but she's still alive."  
"Her body won't last much longer." Owen said.

Gwen walked over from where she had been standing on the side of the room and bent down to kneel at Carys head.

 

"Use me. Leave Carys. Take my body as host just let her live."  
"Gwen what are you doing?" Lucy asked. "I really don't want to have to tell your boyfriend you died first day on the job. Or ever, really."  
"I'm stronger than she is." The Welsh woman said looking up from where she was kneeling, her hands either side of Carys head. "I'll last longer, you know what's happening, you might be able to save me, I..."

"OK" Jack said standing up and pulling Lucy up with him.  
"Jack, you can't let her." Tosh complained

"Like she said... she responsible for this."  
"Come on then. Do it. Leave her." Gwen said as she stood up and tried to mentally prepare herself for being possessed by an alien and for the fight to control her own body.

Carys back arched and the pink gas left her, it hung in the air for a second or so before moving towards Gwen who automatically took a couple of steps backwards. As it passed Jack he threw down the portable prison cell that he had taken off Owen earlier that day when they captured Carys.

 

They called all hear the moans of the creature as it tried to get out and fought against the walls.

"How long can it survive in there?" Owen asked Tosh quietly

"It's pretty weak." Tosh replied "Why?"  
"Bit worried about the how long that battery will last for."

"Look" Gwen said as the gas started to fade, "it's dying." The gas fell to the ground and became a large pile of pink/brown dust, similar to the bodies that it had left in its wake. About 5 seconds after it died the battery of the cell ran out and dissipated.

"Travel halfway across the universe for the greatest sex," Jack said as he picked up the dust and let it fall through his hands, "still end up dying alone."

Gwen leaned forward and gave Jack a small kiss.

"Thank you." She said before walking to join the others.

"Hate to break the moment." Lucy said with a small smirk "but we have got a tidy up to do. Loads of bodies, or rather not bodies to deal with. Deaths to explain and Carys to take home once we're sure she's clean."

"Good point" Jack immediately became all business again. "Tosh, Gwen go find out what's happened here. Owen, go get the medical kit and scanner from the SUV - check Carys is ok. Lucy, can I have a word?"

Lucy nodded and everyone got to their jobs.

 

"How much of this did you know?" Jack asked, jumping straight to the point.

"How much would you hate me if I said all of it?" Lucy asked, slightly uncomfortably. Jack sighed, and pinched his nose.

"At some point you and I need to work out the rules for dealing with this."  
"I agree" Lucy said "I mean I did what I could but... Jack I have a request?"  
"What's that?"  
"Can you not Retcon Carys?" She asked and Jack looked surprised so she ploughed ahead. "It might make a difference now, but it might still not stop the nightmares or the fear, and there's nothing to say that the next time she has sex she won't remember everything. Forgetting it isn't going to help, talking about it is."  
"Who's she going to talk to? You?"

"Well why not? I'll listen and I know about aliens and what's happened to her. If she remembers in the future she's just going to get shipped off to the loony bin."

Owen came back in and started running the scanner over Carys body.

"She's clean." He announced soon after and Jack nodded.

"Ok." he looks and Lucy and nods, "ok - she's your responsibility."

"Thank you" Lucy said seriously.

Carys moaned and started to move from where she was lying on the floor. They could tell she was about to wake up.

"Owen, you help her outside."Jack ordered, "Lucy, the Retcon is in the glove compartment, you only need one tablet. It's your job to make sure she gets home safely with this incident behind her." Lucy nodded.

"Understood. Am I ok to go home after or do I need to go back to the hub?"  
"Go home." Jack laughed, "It's been a long day."  
"We've been working for around 18 hours" Lucy agreed, "Not quite what you had planned for Gwen's first day."  
"Not exactly." Jack agreed, "We'll do that on Monday when I expect you in bright and early."

"See you Jack." Lucy smiled "I'll get a taxi to Carys', instead of driving the SUV." She left the room, Owen followed carrying Carys.

 

Lucy made a point of getting the Retcon out of the SUV as Carys was just waking up.

"Where am I?" She asked scared, before noticing she was just outside of her place of work, "who are you?"

"Think about it." Lucy said sadly "You'll remember."

Lucy could see the exact moment where Carys remembered and realised what had happened. Her eyes widened and the fear in them was palpable. She curled into herself and Lucy grabbed her arms.

"Hey." She said softly, "it's fine. What do you feel?"

"Human." Carys breathed. "I can't feel it anymore."

"We got it out of you," Lucy smiled at her, "It's dead and you're free."

"But... I remember... it's really gone?"

"Really really." Lucy looked up from Carys at Owen, "Can you get us a taxi? I think Carys would like to go home, providing that's ok with you, doctor."

Carys looked up at Owen her eyes begging him to say that was fine, all she wanted to do was hug her dad and have him tell her everything was going to be fine. Owen nodded, "I'm prescribing bed rest as well as some strong pain killers and some sleeping tablets. Did you get them out of the front of the SUV Lucy?" He asked and she knew he was talking about the Retcon.

"Yup." Lucy nodded, "I'll make sure Carys gets what she needs."

"Then I see no problem with her going home. I'll flag down a taxi for you."

 

Lucy checked that the taxi driver couldn't hear everything she was saying before turning serious as she talked to Carys.

"We need to talk about what happened. I know you don't want to but this is important, you've got a choice to make and you have to do it now."  
Carys' face paled "What?"

"I can give you a tablet so you don't remember the past 48 hours, it'll just feel like an extreme hangover. However that doesn't mean you'll never remember, you might still have nightmares and one day it might come back in bits and pieces. Or you can go home with my personal number and all your memories intact, you will definitely have nightmares and flashbacks but you'll be able to talk to someone about them, someone who might not know exactly what you are going through but who knows about aliens and about what happened."

"If I take the tablet what happens if I remember?" Carys asked

"We can have you down on the system as someone who needs to be watched. That will just simply mean that if anything unusual happens it'll be flagged up, if you need psych help I can get that as something to be flagged up as well so we can try to get you pointed towards someone who knows about this stuff. But that probably won't happen, and I have no idea how much you'll remember or even if you will at all. It's quite possible that this will just be a bad dream and a hangover, but it is also possible that next time you have sex you'll remember everything or at least enough to mentally scar you."

"And you'll help me?"

"I'll do what I can." Lucy replied, she could see what answer Carys was leaning to and was glad of it. "If that means you calling me at all hours of the night with nightmares, that's fine. If you are calling because you want to talk about it, great. If you are calling because you need someone on the other end of the phone to talk about nonsense while you try to get your head straight I can do that as well. I'm not a professional in this area Carys, I've only been in the job a couple of months. But I will help you through this in any way I can."

"Ok." Carys nodded, "I won't take the tablets. What are you going to tell my dad?"

"As close to the truth as possible." Lucy said slightly less seriously, "You were involved in an incident where you saw people die, you were watching from the sidelines unable to escape but unfortunately everything else is confidential and that if you want to move away from Cardiff we can do that by putting the pair of you in witness protection or by making sure you have the money to live somewhere else. And that is an option Carys, if you can't be in Cardiff anymore we can move you."

Carys nodded in understanding, she gazed out of the window at Cardiff city passing by.

"Can we not talk about it anymore?"  
"No problem." Lucy smiled, "Legolas or Aragorn? And I'm talking the characters and not the actors. Cause Legolas with his bow is damn nice on the eye but I find there is just something about Aragorn's mystery and his dark hair that makes him sexy and gives him the edge for me."

Carys laughed,

"I agree Aragorn is nicer, I don't trust a guy who cares more about his hair than I do."

"He's too much off a pretty boy I admit." Lucy said glad to see Carys was engaging in the conversation. "But I do love the bow as a weapon, but then I love swords as well... and those blue eyes of his..."

"They are very blue."

 

The taxi pulled up outside Carys house, Lucy paid him and got out with her. "I'll see you in and talk to your dad. You are going to get through this Carys, I promise."  
Carys nodded and Lucy could see her readying herself, she knocked on the door and within seconds her father opened it. Carys stared at him before sobbing and launching herself into his arms.

Lucy showed Mr Jones her ID over Carys' shoulder as he hugged his daughter and held her tightly. "Can I come in Mr Jones? There are some things we need to discuss. Your daughter is in no trouble but she's had a bit of a scare."

Her father nodded and moved out of the doorway, Carys still clinging on to him, Lucy walked into the house and shut the door behind her.

 


	4. Chapter 4 - Rules of Torchwood

The day after the 'sex gas incident', as it quickly became known, Lucy gestured for Gwen to join her on the shooting range. Gwen followed her warily, they were silent until Lucy sat down at her new desk - which Ianto had somehow found the time to sort out.

"After yesterday" Lucy said getting straight to the point. "do you still want to stay in Torchwood?"

"Yeah." Gwen breathed in response. "I'd been thinking about it all of last night - I think I worried Rhys. But I do, I want to stay. People might have died but we saved Carys, it was worth it."

"18" Lucy said and Gwen just stared at her so Lucy expanded on her point "18 people died because you broke the ship and let the creature out. That's one hell of a first day"  
"It was an accident." The Welshwoman tried to defend herself "And Jack said one of the soldiers probably..."

"Except they didn't and you did. Can you really stay in Torchwood knowing that those 18 deaths are your fault and that they are just the beginning? Because if you stay, there is no doubt about it; the continual list of people you couldn't save. The names you will never forget and the names you wished you knew. This job will break you - it breaks everyone - what's important is how you get back together. I'm not telling you this to scare you." She continued in a softer voice, seeing the fear and anger in her co-worker's eyes. "It's important that you know and understand what this job entails. You accepted Jack's offer without knowing what it meant and now you do. Do you still want to work at Torchwood? Don't answer straight away, think about it" She passed Gwen a pair of ear protectors. "I'm going to shoot while you think, come and interrupt when you know the answer."

Lucy got out of her chair and walked into the main range, grabbing the rifle and made a mental note of the time, 9:23. She put her own ear protectors on and started to shoot.

 

It was only when she registered a body next to her that she stopped. Gwen smiled at her and nodded, Lucy looked at the clock again; 10:01. "Good, you actually thought about it."

"You in?" Lucy said dissembling the rifle and starting to clean it out.

"I'm in."

"Right. You've got to go see Owen. You're due a medical. Patient/Doctor confidentiality still applies to us even though we regularly break data protection acts as well as other things. So Owen will be the only one to know anything unless he feel that you are not safe in the field and then you has to tell Jack that you are grounded although he won't tell him why. Welcome to Torchwood Agent Cooper."

Lucy smiled and stuck out her hand, Gwen shook it "Thank you Agent Smith."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"What are you doing?" Gwen asked once Owen finally released her from his clutches and completed her medical. Lucy absent-mindedly noticed that Gwen's hadn't taken as long as hers had - although Owen did have access to her previous doctors records and wasn't checking for differences between the biology of the two worlds. She made a mental note to speak to the doctor about that as he hadn't brought it up again apart from the 'ahhhh' sounds he had originally made and continued to make every month when he insisted in removing more of her blood.

"Writing the rules of Torchwood for you." Lucy replied to Gwen. "I've also put a copy of the handbook on your desk. Technically you need to read that before you can go out on the field. But Jack doesn't care when you read it, as long as you do it in your first month. Plus there's the personnel file you need to fill out."

Gwen looked over and saw a fairly thick book and some paper on top of her otherwise empty desk. It hadn't taken long for Lucy to clear it out for the newest agent to use, although Lucy hadn't cleared the locked cupboard yet.

"So you're giving me rules on top of the handbook?"

"Hmm..." Lucy nodded biting the end of the Biro as she thought. "These are more rules for Torchwood 3 and the hub and not Torchwood in general. The handbook is standard issue for all agents but written by 1."

"1 is London right?" Gwen asked trying to remember what Jack said

"Yeah, but I wouldn't mention it around here." Lucy quickly scribbled another rule down. "Jack was never their biggest fan, and then they caused the Battle of Canary Wharf to happen. Plus Ianto worked there before he transferred here after the battle."

 

"What rules have you got so far?" Owen asked walking over to join them.  
"Just the bog standard ones" Lucy replied, "I figure we can add to them when needed."  
She started to read from the list in front of her.

"Rule 1. Don't mess with the rift.

Rule 2. - Don't touch the coffee machine. Not only is it Ianto's and sacred but if you break it we'll be on decaf or worse - Starbucks!"

Owen, Tosh and Lucy shivered in disgust at the thought of being denied Ianto's precious coffee.

"Rule 3. Rule number 1 - The Doctor lies."

"Sorry." Owen interrupted "Rule 3 is rule number 1 and about someone who is technically Torchwood's number 1 enemy but as far as you and Jack are concerned is our best friend?"

"Yup" Lucy nodded, "Got a problem with that?"

"No, I just... I wanted to check."

"Rule 4 - no taking any of the big weapons. They are my toys."  
"Have you actually used the word toys?" Tosh asked, she stopped pretending to not listen and span her chair round to face them.

"Err..." Lucy glanced down to look, "yeah?" She looked slightly awkward before shrugging

"Only in Torchwood could those weapons be called toys." Tosh sighed, "and only you. What else have you got?"  
"Rule 5 - No bringing people back to life."

"Understandable, what with what it did to Suzie." Gwen agreed

"Rule 6 - If you ever accidentally knock out a plug to any computer - especially Tosh's - then the excuse 'we were having fun, lighten up a bit' is not good enough."

Tosh frowned at the idea of anyone knocking out the plug to any of her computers and Owen could see that the comment was directed at him.

"Rule 7 - If you ever get Tosh angry enough that she starts speaking Japanese, you're on your own. None of us are helping you although if you give us money we will go and get the chocolate cake while you get on your knees and beg"

Tosh blushed slightly at the reference to the last time she had properly lost her temper, but didn't say anything else.

"Rule 8 - Never ask Jack why, or for proof behind any of his stories." Lucy looked up, "That's all I've got so far. Like I said I figure we can add to them as and when we need to. Oh Rule 9 - If the Doctor ever does appear don't arrest him."

"Rule 10" Owen said "listen to the medic." Lucy scribbled it down,

"What about you Tosh anything you want to add?"

Tosh thought about it for a minute before taking the pen and paper and saying as she wrote.

"Rule 11 - Lucy is not allowed near any technology without my prior permission and cheat sheet." Lucy laughed.

"I'm not that bad."

"Yes." Owen said with a laugh as well, "you really are."  
"I can work a computer to do all the normal stuff." She pointed out, "just not Torchwood normal"

"Which is why I need to write you a cheat sheet for everything."

"Well in which case." Lucy took the paper back and wrote on it again. "Rule 12 - if you want to use anything more than the standard stun gun and a .45 in the field you need to train for at least an hour a week with that weapon, and log it as well. If the training isn't logged I'm not letting you take it out of the hub."  
"Don't get too big for your boots, you're not weapons specialist yet." Jack said as he walked over to join them. He had seen them all talking and wanted to know what was going on.

"I've got one month left." Lucy replied, "That rule can just be suspended until then. Unless you think I should write it off all together?"

"The rule's fine I just don't want you getting too big headed." Jack laughed. "Rule 13 - No taking alien items out of the hub." Lucy diligently wrote it but still complained.

"That's in the handbook. These are supposed to be things that aren't but that people should know."  
"It's always worth reminding people." Jack said sternly.

"Rule 14" Lucy said thinking of another one, "say please and thank you to Ianto. He doesn't have to make you coffee so nicely, at all hours of the day and night."

"He's the tea-boy." Owen complained loudly.

"He's a human being." Lucy countered, "Manners never hurt anyone and like I said just because he has to make the coffee doesn't mean it needs to be anything other than mud."

"Are you finished for now?" Jack asked and both Lucy and Owen knew that he meant both the argument, which was becoming more and more common, and the list of rules.

"Seems good enough." Tosh shrugged, "as long as we can add to it."

"I'll stick it up on the wall on the inside of the tourist office, that way you see it every morning and you can see if anyone has added anything to it." Jack took the list off Lucy. "Owen, you can get started on the research on the weevils, Tosh you've got your rift prediction program to work on, Lucy you can continue on your weapons research project and Gwen I need you to fill out paperwork. Lucy have you got her shooting yet?"

Lucy shook her head, "I thought you might want to do that."

"Brilliant" Jack grinned at them, "Gwen once you've read through the handbook and settled in a bit more I'll get you on the range. Now you've all finished writing rules for this place perhaps you could get on with your jobs."

They nodded and went back to their desks, Lucy unlocked the cabinet she had put the information in that she was researching and carried it down to her new desk. Ianto promised her that within a week or so he would have set up a small office separate from the range so she could work while the others were busy using it.

Lucy smiled to herself, turned on her ipod, grabbed the file on the top and got to work.


	5. Chapter 5 - Ghostmachine

Jack called Lucy over to his office, she shrugged and put down the file she was writing up again - water damage and bad handwriting was a terrible mix - and walked over to his office. Jack shut the door behind her.

"What's up?" Lucy asked slightly worried, Gwen had been with the team for just over a week now and although she was still technically the Welshwoman's mentor she had taken a step or two back.

"Ianto's been making me do my paperwork. It's a pain in the ass but I have found out some interesting things," Jack started "for example it turns out you are due a holiday. You've been working for Torchwood for three months and have only had 8 days off in the entire time you've been here."

Lucy shrugged uncomfortably,

"It's not the kind of job that lends itself to days off and I always seem to have stuff to do. I'm training, or working on my personal projects or we've got an emergency and I'm in the field, or its just normal stuff with the weevils or..."

"You need to take some time off." Jack insisted her as he interrupted. "I understand why you don't want it, because if you take time off you'll be a normal person and it'll hit home that you are in a different universe."

"I know I'm in a different universe." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "Living in a TV show does make it rather obvious, although we've only had two episodes so far."

"That's something I want to discuss as well." Jack agreed, "But you're straying from the point. You've been displaced and you are burying yourself in work so you don't have to think about it. Unfortunately for you I'm not going to let you do that any longer. You've got a week of enforced holiday and UNIT are expecting you this weekend before you take it."

"Why am I going to UNIT?" Lucy asked worried, "They haven't found out about me have they? They don't want to run tests or try and find out the future?"

"Nothing like that." Jack said calming her down. "It's just they've got some different alien weapons to us and as you are Torchwood's official weapons specialist I thought you might want to go have a look. They're giving you free access to their shooting range for 48 hours." Lucy's eyes widened as she realised what Jack was saying.

"I got the promotion, but I haven't done everything you wanted me too yet."

"You deserve it, just keep working on it, we both know you'll get there." Jack laughed, "Although I'm not sure what the Doctor will say, you idolise him and yet you not only work for Torchwood but you are our weapons specialist as well."

"He'd look at me disappointingly and make some disparaging comment, probably switch my gun for a banana." Lucy replied automatically "And then he'd find a great injustice that needed fixing and forget all about it, until I saved his life with one of my weapons."

"Probably" Jack agreed, "You sound like you've thought about it."

"I've just watched far too much Doctor Who." Lucy countered. "So am I really getting to play with UNIT's toys?"

"You'll be supervised obviously, it'll be minimal but it will be there." He said, "Go have fun. I realised this was the only way I could make you take longer off work."

"You do know Ianto is due a holiday as well." Lucy said suddenly realising something, "Since I've started he's taken less than me off. He just fixes the paperwork to look like he has. It's not like any of you guys notice him - he just blends into the background."

"I'll look into it." Jack promised. He poured himself a drink and spoke again, "But before you get ready for your time off there is something else I want to talk about - your knowledge." Lucy nodded.

"I knew you would want this conversation at some point."

"I've not pressed you on how much you know or when you know it but we need to lay down some rules. For a start when are you going to tell Gwen?" Lucy shrugged looking everywhere apart from at Jack.

"I dunno. I don't really want to. I mean it doesn't make any difference because I'm not stupid enough to use this information to try and change everything and I like the fact that she doesn't know, makes me feel a bit normal."

"She needs to be told at some point."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Fine! But not for a while yet, see if she can work it out - or at least work out that something is wrong. I just don't see why she has to know."

"Because no matter how much you may or may not like her she is your team mate and you have to work together in the field and therefore you have to be able to trust each other."

"Ok, I'll tell her on election day, end of series 1. Will that do?"

"It'll do for now. That's _the_ latest you can tell her." Jack countered, "I'm not happy about it but if you don't tell her after that I will. You've got till the new Prime Minister steps into office."

"You'll have other things to worry about." Lucy muttered remembering how the Master was going to treat the immortal captain throughout the year that never was. On election day Captain Jack Harkness would be more concerned with the Doctor, the Master and Martha Jones than Lucy needing to tell Gwen the truth.

"I don't want to know. What we need to do is work out how we deal with an episode?"  
"Well I'm doing my best not to change anything, I could have said I knew the name of the human the sex gas had possessed and that would have sped everything up. We would have found Carys that night and could have potentially worked out a way to save her without her having killed anyone else."  
"So why didn't you?"

"Because I don't know that impact that will have on the world! I'm not the Doctor, I can't see what is a fixed point and what isn't. He said that the worst thing is an ordinary human being alive when they shouldn't be - dammit the reapers nearly destroyed all of time when Rose saved her dad. So I figure the best thing to do is to act as though every episode is a fixed point in time."

" _Can_ you do that?" Jack asked, he had to be sure that nothing was going to go seriously wrong.

"I can do my damned best." She said harshly before sagging slightly. "I don't know what I can and can't do, so I figure it's best to act as though I can't do anything. It's not as though I can just ask him."

They sat in silence for a while, both thinking about the Doctor and trying to guess what he would say about this situation.

Lucy was the first to speak, "So, I'm guessing that as I've got this promotion and you are sending me off to play at UNIT you have no plans to get rid of me; due to the circumstances, I mean."  
"Nothing at present" Jack smirked, "Just try not to destroy all of time and everything will be fine."  
"I'll try." Lucy replied, "Sooo... UNIT? What do they know about me?"

"They have your official existence but nothing about how you appeared here. That's not leaving Torchwood - ever."

"Thank you." She spoke sincerely. Lucy knew that although the Doctor preferred UNIT over Torchwood - mainly because of the Brig and that he had worked for them in their golden years - UNIT was still not above the idea of locking people away forever or running tests on people with 'abnormalities'. She also knew that she would be considered an 'abnormality' and her knowledge a potential threat.

"No one hurts any member of my team apart from me." Jack said equally seriously but with a twinkle in his eye. "Anyway, the minute you leave this office you are officially on holiday. UNIT will be picking you up are 6am on Friday and give you lodging until they drop you back off at 9pm Sunday evening. And then you can come back to work on Wednesday."

Lucy made to complain but Jack just looked at her and she knew that she wasn't going to win. "Fine" She sighed. "I'll go grab my bag. See you in a week."  
"Have fun at UNIT and don't let them push you around. You're Torchwood's weapons specialist, remind them of that every now and again - you have just as much right to be there as they do if not more."

"See you Jack." Lucy said with a laugh, "I'll make sure to send you a picture of their faces when I beat them in a shooting competition."

 

Lucy walked out of the office with a smile, Ianto was waiting near her desk with a mug of coffee. "Wasn't sure if it was good or bad news and thought you might need a pick-me-up." He said as he passed her the mug.

"Thanks Yan." She replied as she started to tidy her stuff away. "Mixture of good and bad - I'm on enforced holiday leave. Jack seems to think I spend too much time here."  
"You do." Ianto interrupted wryly. "Almost as much as me, and I have a reason to be spending my spare time here; you don't."

"Yeah well, he's kicking me out for a week, but I get to spend the weekend at UNIT playing on their range with all their lovely toys. It's only fitting for Torchwood's weapons specialist to have an idea of what they have and how to use it."  
"Congratulations." He said, understanding that this meant that she got the promotion she wanted

"Thanks." Lucy grinned, "Feels like I actually belong here."

"You've always belonged here."

"You know what I mean."

"Oi Tea-boy!" Owen called over "Stop gossiping and come and help me over here. I need another pair of hands."  
"Duty calls. I'll see you later, I'll walk home and leave you the car" Lucy said as she grabbed her bag and left the hub. She spent some time just enjoying the view of Cardiff bay on a normal morning - cold and windy and still somehow beautiful - before walking back to the flat that she and Ianto shared.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy walked back into the tourist office with Ianto a week later, looking forward to going back to work. Her weekend at UNIT had given her some new ideas of training practice and competitions between the team to make sure that their skills didn't drop.

Ianto had informed her of the incident with the ghost-machine that happened while she wasn't there. Although she wanted to come in and help, Jack had Ianto tell her that she still wasn't allowed into work and he would get her arrested for breaking into government property if she tried and she knew he wasn't joking.

As she went to walk into the hub Lucy spotted a new addition to her list of rules, written in Jack's handwriting.

_'Rule 15 - NEVER press flashing buttons on alien technology if I haven't cleared it for use_

_'Rule 16 - You MUST have 1 day off for every 7 days working (Lucy and Ianto this is for you), end of the world excepting.'_

She laughed at the idea of Jack holding back on his rant to Owen and just scribbling on the list instead, she took a pen out of her pocket and wrote another couple of rules she had thought of while she was on 'holiday'

_'Rule 17 - NO PLAYING WITH TIME TRAVEL_

_Rule 17a - Unless you are with the Doctor in which case have fun but leave us a note to let us know where you are going'_

 

Ianto smirked when he saw what she added. "You ready to get back to work again?" he asked as they walked down the corridor between the tourist office and the hub

Lucy nodded, "You know I am. Although I am kinda glad I missed that episode. It's fairly dull."

"I doubt Owen or Gwen thought that."

"Oh well." She shrugged, "They're hardly going to hold it against me, it's not the worst this series - that's later on. But come on you have to admit from the point of view of a story it's not the most exciting. You went to _Splott_ \- or Sploe however you want to pronounce it. Also I know you Ianto Jones, you've lived in Cardiff all your life, you call it Splott just like everyone else, you just wanted to annoy them." Ianto just smirked.

"I will admit that it doesn't make the best story."

"But you still make the best coffee and you want to make it for me now as a 'welcome back to work' present." Lucy said jokingly

"I make a coffee as soon as I get in anyway. And it's not like I haven't been making it at home"

"It's not the same though."

The cog door opened and neither were surprised to see that apart from Jack they were the first ones in.

"Yes I'll make you some coffee" Ianto sighed, he knew that Lucy wasn't going to let it go. "You go and fill Jack in and get the official story and I'll prepare my best coffee for you."

"Thanks Yan." Lucy grinned as she walked over to Jack's office, "see you in a bit."


	6. Chapter 6 - Cyberwoman

They all got back to the hub without a problem, Jack giving orders as they got in so they could find out about this ‘supposed UFO’, Lucy pulled Jack aside.

“I know this one, and you’re going to hate me and I’m sorry in advance. I’m really sorry.”

Jack looked at her quizzically but didn’t say anything as at that minute the power started to drain.

 

“What’s that?” Gwen asked.

Tosh looked at her computer for the answer, “Internal power drain.”

“What’s causing it?”

“Something big to drain that amount of power.” Jack said seriously “Tosh, run a system diagnostic.”

Ianto turned round and Lucy could see the worry in his face.

“Actually.” He said and she winced, was she the only one who could hear that Ianto was lying? It seemed so obvious to her. “We’ve been having generator problems all evening. I was down there earlier. A couple of bits of cabling has come loose, thought I’d fixed it. Let me have another look.”

“Fine go check” Jack replied and Ianto walked off to deal with it. Jack looked at Lucy who steadfastly refused to meet his eyes and had sat at her desk pretending to start to get on with some work.

“Want some help?” Gwen offered but Lucy spoke before he could.  
“It’s ok, I’ll come help you Ianto.”

“It’s fine.” He tried to shove her off

“I know, I’ll still come help though.” She jumped up from her chair and followed him as quickly as she could, she knew that if she stayed in the main area it wouldn’t take long before Jack could get the whole truth from her.

 

They ran down to where they knew Lisa was and Lucy flinched at the sight of Dr. Tenzaki on the floor.

“What happened?” Ianto gasped

“His upgrade failed.” The cyberwoman replied and Lucy knew that although there was the slightest possibility of curing her before, Lisa was now completely gone.

“Was it an accident?” Ianto asked before he realised what had been said, “Tell me you didn’t do this.”

“I wanted to repay him for helping me, by removing the weaknesses of his humanity.”

“I’ll deal with the body.” Lucy said pulling off her hoodie and throwing it into the corridor. “This way they won’t see the blood on my t-shirt and these jeans are already blood stained. You talk to Lisa.” She grabbed the legs of the body and pulled it towards one of the side rooms before running off to another room to get a body bag.

Ianto joined her as she was just finishing dealing with it.

“She didn’t mean to do it, it’s post-traumatic.” He said in defence of what used to be his girlfriend.

“Ianto.” Lucy said quietly, “She tried to upgrade him, he would have been screaming to be released. I don’t think it’s something you can do by accident.”

“What do you know?” he replied angrily.

“I don’t” She tried to pacify him, hating seeing him like this and hating the lie as she said it. “Listen I’ll go clean up the blood from the floor, you just finish up here and pray that you are right.”

“I am right.”

“I hope so.” And with that she left taking a mop and quickly getting the new blood off the floor so it obvious, as she did so the light’s started flickering again. She could hear the rest of the team talking in her ear, but that soon died again and she remembered that the power drain was blocking the headset signal too.

Lucy quickly put the mop away and walked back down the corridor to get her hoodie, only to find Owen holding it.

 

“Ah.”

“I’m sure you’ve got a brilliant reason as to why your top is covered in blood. When it wasn’t about 5 minutes ago.”

She shook her head, unsure of what to say but knowing that they needed to get out of the corridor.

“We should go.”

“We’re going to see what’s causing the drain and you are going to stay there and wait for Jack to come down so you can tell him the whole story. Actually,” he thought better of it, “you can open the door and go in first.”

Lucy sighed and opened the door the three of them walking in with their guns held high.

“What is it?” Gwen asked as Owen shook his head in disbelief and anger.

“NO NO NO. These things brought down Torchwood 1, they were all destroyed.” He turned his gun on Lucy, “What the hell is it doing in our basement??”

“Just tell me what it does.” Gwen said

“It’s what’s left of a cyberman conversion unit.” Lucy said quietly, “a modified one but one nonetheless.”

Jack suddenly started speaking in their ears.

“If I don’t hear something soon I’m coming down there.”

“Jack, it’s Gwen. The comms dropped out. We’re back online now.”

“Any sign of Ianto or Lucy?”

“No sign of Ianto, but we found Lucy covered in blood and parts of a cyber conversion unit fully powered up and working. A modified one apparently” Owen hissed

“I want you back up here immediately. Lucy you’d better have a damn good explanation for this and telling me sorry half an hour ago does not count.”

“We still haven’t found...” Owen started but the CyberLisa stopped his thought in its tracks by hitting him on the back of the head.

Lucy pulled her gun out and pointed it at Lisa, Gwen did the same thing and spoke to Jack telling him it was a code 0 – invasion. Lucy decided to try and speak to Lisa, it recognised Ianto it might recognise her.

“Hi Lisa,” She tried, “it’s Lucy remember do you remember me? We came to see if you were ok.”

“Lucy” The cold electric voice said, “Ianto’s friend?”

“That’s it, I’m glad you remember me. Ianto’s told me so many stories, like when you had to share that sleeping bag while you were camping. How about you just let us go?”

“Lucy what the hell are you doing?” Gwen hissed

“Trying to save your life.” She replied, “I may not like you but I didn’t think you wanted to end up on the conversion table, and I don’t really either.”

Lisa walked forward and Gwen spoke, “We don’t mean you any harm, but come any closer and I’ll shoot.” The cyberwoman just took a step forward and knocked the gun out of Gwen’s hand and held Lucy by her neck.

“Friend of Ianto I shall thank you by changing you first, you will be like me.”

“Gwen for fucks sake run.” Lucy hissed as Lisa threw her into the conversion unit. Lisa turned it on and Lucy screamed at the sight of the knives above her head, she shut her eyes but she could still hear the sounds and feel pain from the amount of electricity needed to run the table. She couldn’t help but remember that when Lisa had been asked about what she remembered her answer was pain, and she knew that if Jack didn’t arrive in time it was only going to get worse.

 

“Put your hands in the air, turn around and face me.” She heard Jack shout, “You’re a girl.” He added surprised, Lucy opened her eyes to see him and then shut them again instantly.

Lisa stepped forward and Lucy could hear her walk away and an argument between Jack, Gwen and Ianto.

“FOR FUCKS SAKE IANTO SHE THREW ME IN HERE BECAUSE SHE RECOGNISED ME AND WANTED ME TO BE LIKE HER. SHUT THIS DAMN THING OFF BEFORE I AM!” She shouted causing the argument to stop. Gwen tried shooting the control unit but it failed so Jack ordered Tosh to turn the whole power system off. Lucy sighed with relief when it worked and gingerly got out of the table.

 

“Lucy and Ianto, hands above your head and walk in front of me. Give Gwen your gun.” Jack ordered.

“For pity's sake Jack.” Gwen tried, “Lucy’s just got out of this thing.”

“That’s an order!”

Lucy gently kicked her gun across the floor to Gwen, it had fallen when Lisa had picked her up and moved her hands above her head like Jack had ordered. Ianto threw his gun to the ground and did the same. They both walked in silence down the corridor side by side.

Owen had woken up by this point and had his gun trained on Lucy while, Jack’s was trained on Ianto.

 

“What?” Tosh asked as she saw them walk up.

Lucy gave her a sad smile and got onto her knees in front of Jack as he ordered them too.

“Did you know that thing was down there?” Jack asked them both.

“I put her down there.” Ianto said.

“Yes.” Lucy said simply.

“You hid a Cyberman within Torchwood and you didn’t tell us?” Jack’s gun was now at Ianto’s forehead. “What else are you keeping from us?”

“Like you care.” Ianto replied and Lucy could hear that he’d almost completely given up. “I clear up your shit. No questions asked and that’s the way you like it. When did you last ask me anything about my life?” Jack lowered his gun and put the safety back on. “Her name is Lisa.” He continued, “She’s my girlfriend.”

“Why didn’t you tell us? We could have helped you” Gwen tried.

Lucy was going to stay quiet but she couldn’t help herself. “This is Torchwood Gwen. Things like Lisa are what we’re supposed to get rid of.”

“Why would I tell you about her? Lucy already knew it wasn’t like I’d told her.”

“A little loyalty perhaps?” Owen offered

“My loyalty’s to her.” Ianto replied “She worked for Torchwood, she was caught up in battle. I owe it to Lisa, we owe it to her to find a cure.”

“Ianto believe me there is no cure. Those who are converted stay that way, your girlfriend isn’t the exception” Jack said,

“You can’t know that for sure.”

“Look,” Jack sighed, “you need to know what is happening here because this is where these things start. Small decisions that become mass slaughter. These creatures take a foothold by exploiting human weakness, then they take a base, rebuild their forces, and before you know it the cyber race is spreading out across the universe. Erasing worlds, assimilating populations, all because of the tiny beginnings here.” He looked at Lucy, “and Lucy will already know this.”

“No.” Ianto looked at Lucy who hung her head, “You said...”

“I said there may be a smallest possibility and it would be stupidly difficult but that I would help you in any way I could.” She said quietly before looking up at him “Ianto...”

“I trusted you.” He said angrily before standing up “You’re not listening any of you, the conversion was never completed.”

“There is no turning back for her now, she already tried to convert Lucy. Do you think she’s just going to stop there? She’s a cyberman, cyberwoman, there is no turning back – not now”

“I’m not giving up on her. I love her, can you understand that Jack? Haven’t you ever loved anyone?”

“Ianto please” Lucy said quietly from the floor, where she was still sitting on her knees with her hands behind her head.

“You lied to me.” Ianto hissed, “You said you didn’t know anything but all this time. I don’t want to talk to you and when this is over you need to find somewhere else to live.”

“I’m sorry.” Lucy said again, “I had to try and help. I wanted it to work, I thought maybe with two of us...”

“You lied!” He spat at her and Lucy had no reply to this, it was true so she just hung her head in shame.

 

Jack walked away and Owen spoke.

“There is no way we are going to get the weapon store open and we can't get down to Lucy's office either.”

“It’s going to take 6 hours to get the power back online” Tosh added and Jack sighed.

“Let me talk to her. I can still save her, save all of us. She’s not a monster” Ianto spoke again, begging to be allowed to give Lisa a second chance.

“Lucy tried that.” Gwen said, feeling nothing but pity and fear. They all looked at Lucy who hadn’t moved from her position kneeling on the ground.

“She recognised me, and then tried to thank me by converting me.” She looked up and caught Jack’s eye, he signalled that she should stand up. She got up carefully and walked over to Ianto forcing him to look at her. “Ianto I don’t think it’s going to work, she may have all her memories but that happens. They know who they were when they were human and the only person I have ever known fight it was Yvonne Heartman – who killed some while in her cyber-form, talking about Queen and Country. I don’t know how she did it but she did. The point is, they know who they were and they know they can use it. Lisa’s body may be human – mostly – but her mind is all cyber.”

“You’re still lying” he replied, “that’s all you know how to do isn’t it. Lie to everyone around you. Does anyone know the truth about you? No one here does, you’re just a geek with nothing and no one in this world and nothing to get back to in your original one either. You’ve got no friends and no family.”  
They all knew Ianto had crossed the line and he knew it too the minute he said it but he refused to take it back. Lucy slapped him, hard across the face and hissed back at him.

“I risked everything I have here – and you’re right it isn’t much – for you and for Lisa even though I knew that it was next to impossible to save her. I could have pretended I simply didn’t know and let it happen. But I didn’t, I tried to help you because I thought you deserved it. Because you deserve a thank you for putting up with their shit and you need something to remind you that the world has beauty in it as well. I didn’t have to help you Ianto Jones but I wanted to. But don’t you ever mention my family again. Ever. You have no idea what I’ve lost, in coming to this world and even before that. Don’t you dare to assume anything about me.”

Jack moved so as to get between them. “Ok that’s enough. Right now we have enough to deal with without fighting between ourselves. Ok?” He looked at both of them and they both nodded.

“Good.”

 

The CyberLisa walked into the main area of the hub and Ianto broke away from the group trying to talk to her. Lucy tried to move to pull him back but Jack stopped her.

“Lisa.” He said “It’s me.”

“Jack let me go.” Lucy said struggling in his hold.

“You can’t just let him...” Gwen added but he shut them both up with a look, wanting to know what was going to happen.

“The army will be rebuilt from here. This building is suitable.”

Jack let Lucy go as he spoke but she was almost frozen to ground in fear.

“Who are you?”

“Human.2”

“No!” Ianto moaned in despair and took another step forward, “Lisa.”

Jack ignored him and continued to mock her.

“So how come you look like Human.1?” He asked sarcastically

“I do not understand.”

“Look at yourself” He goaded “go ahead.”

She turned and looked at her reflection in the glass and Ianto took another step forward, and another.

“Remember Lisa” He continued to try “Remember who you are.”

“The upgrade is incomplete”

“You’re still human”

“I am...” She struggled to find the word “disgusting.”

“Ianto please move.” Lucy begged but he just ignored her and continued to walk towards what used to be his girlfriend.

“I have... I am...” CyberLisa – as Lucy has decided to name her – was still struggling to work out what she was. “wrong”

“We can help you.” And he took another step, he was now within touching distance and Lucy was now continually muttering under her breath

“...move, come on, move Ianto, for fucks sake move...”

“I must start again. Upgrade properly”

“For God’s sake, have you heard yourself?” Another step “Lisa, please. I brought you here to heal you, so we could be together.”

She turned to face him.

“Together. Yes. Transplant my brain into your body. The two of us, together, fused. We will be one, complete person. Isn’t that what love is?”

“No” Ianto said quietly shaking his head, Lucy and the others could see that he was starting to realise that this wasn’t the woman he loved anymore.

“Then we are not compatible.” She grabbed him by the throat and threw him onto the floor in the centre of the hub and the circle that the rest of the team had started to make. Guns were once again raised and they were all pointing at CyberLisa. Lucy wiped the tears her eyes and shoved everything apart from anger to the back of her mind – she didn’t have the time to be sentimental now, she had a job to do.

Lisa sent a bolt of electricity towards Jack’s gun and it travelled up his arm causing him to drop it instantly.

“Code nine manoeuvres – go!” He shouted, they all started to run to their positions, grabbing anything they could use as a weapon but Gwen seemed frozen to the floor in fear, just like Lucy had been. Except Lucy had forced herself to get over it.

“Gwen move” Jack shouted but she didn’t.

“Oi Lisa” Owen shouted trying to get her attention, it worked but now Lisa was coming towards Lucy and Owen.

“Well at least we know she still responds to her name” Lucy said sarcastically as the two started to run again towards the office.

“She’s coming after us.” Gwen said watching from the window.  
“Well there’s a surprise.” Owen said mockingly  
Could you be any less helpful?” She hissed

“I just helped you escape.” Owen retaliated

“Shut up both of you!” Jack shouted and they did, instantly everyone looking to Jack for orders, “Ok this is a fight to the death. We do whatever is necessary to destroy her, ok?” They all nodded and Jack looked straight at Lucy. “OK?”

“Not a problem Jack. She’s not human, she might have been once but not anymore.”

 

Jack put something down on the table slid it over to Tosh.

“What’s this?”

“Something Suzie scavenged last year. She claimed it could open any lock in 45 seconds. I want you out the exit gates up the emergency stairs to the reception”

“She’ll never open that door without power it weighs a ton” Owen said

“Besides, I’m not leaving you here.” Tosh argued

“Just do as I say! All of you!” He ran over to the wall, “once in reception, the panel on the wall, pull it out. Take circuit 357 from the main system. Patch it to these. There should be enough power in there for what we need. Once the main circuit goes live, get out. Meet us by the water tower. GO!” Tosh nodded at all of them and gave them a small smile before leaving.

“You three, find anything that vaguely resembles a weapon.”

“Autopsy room.” Owen suggested, “there should be some lethal stuff there.”

“Ok. Lucy, you’re going to cover those two. You’re the only one with a weapon right now. Understood. Once they’ve got weapons you join me and we go to Ianto.”

“What are you going to do?” Gwen asked

“Buy you some more time.” He replied. “Go!”

 

They ran, Lucy making sure that she was between them and CyberLisa at all times, her gun in her hand with the safety off ready to shoot in an instant. She hadn’t killed anything before – not like this – but it didn’t matter. While Lisa still looked like that she could cope with it, but Lucy knew it wouldn’t last for long and was starting to psyche herself up for what she was going to do later. She had decided how to deal with the cyberwoman when she had first appeared her, but actually having to do it was something completely different.

Lisa came after Jack who had started in their direction.

“I’m sorry for what they did to you. But it all ends here!” he said. Lisa didn’t agree and grabbed him by the neck, simultaneously strangling and electrifying him.

“JACK!” Gwen shouted and tried to reach him, Lucy forcibly grabbed her and shoved her back towards Owen.

“You still need to get those weapons. I’m currently the only one with a gun who stands any chance at all.” She looked over to Tosh who had stopped what she was doing. “Tosh. You need to get to the reception, whatever you hear happening down here keep moving and don’t look back.”

Tosh nodded and opened the door and started to run, quickly shutting the door behind her. She steadfastly followed Jack’s orders and Lucy’s reminder – not looking back at any point, scared that if she did she would stop.

Jack breathed and stood up.

“How did he survive that?” Owen asked still holding Gwen back. For a moment he had almost forgotten about Jack and his ability, adrenaline did weird things to the mind.

“Not now Owen.” Lucy replied, “You need weapons.” Both Gwen and Owen nodded and ran into the med area, trying to find anything that would help.

“Is that all you got?” Jack asked. “I’m not so easily deleted.” In response Lisa just did the same thing, once more sending him to the ground.  
Lisa started to walk away and Lucy knew it was up to her, she had to give the others time.

 

“Lisa!” She shouted before CyberLisa could attempt to open the door and follow Tosh. “Come on, it’s me. Lucy with the music.” The cyberwoman turned to face her instead and she shouted down towards the autopsy room. “Err... you two either need to hurry up or hide. And quick. I’ll try and distract her. I know this place, she doesn’t.”

“Don’t be stupid Lucy” Owen replied. “She’ll kill you.”

“Yeah I worked that bit out thanks.” Lucy gave a harsh laugh. “You two need to hide, I’ll err...” She shot a couple of time at Lisa but it only slowed her down. “Sod it. I’m hiding too.”

She ran down to join them and watched as they climbed into one of the body storage cupboards. “Keep your guns trained on the door.” She said to them.  
“Yeah, I have been here longer than you. “Owen replied “I do have a bit of understanding of how these things work. I was here while Torchwood 1 collapsed.”  
“Good for you. We can discuss all this later but right now Jack named me as your cover so that’s what I’m going to do.” She climbed into the one next to them “Good luck”  
“You too” Gwen said and they both shut the door.

 

Lucy laid there in silence, trying to make her breathing as quiet as possible. All she could think about was Ianto’s face when he found out that she had been lying to him and the despair when he knew that he couldn’t save the woman she loved.

 

She would not have been able to say how long she was in the cupboard, waiting in silence, her gun pointed at the door ready to shoot the minute it was opened.

 

The silence was broken by the sound of a phone ringing. She could hear Owen and Gwen frantically trying to turn it off and the door open next to her. The minute she heard that she also scrambled out keeping her gun pointed at CyberLisa and more specifically the unprotected stomach.

“Turn it off!”

Lisa stalked after Gwen and Owen grabbed a knife from the side.

“Don’t you touch her.” He hissed, she walked forward to attack him instead and two things happened at once.

Lucy shot Lisa, the bullet going through the revealed flesh on her side, and Owen stabbed her in the stomach.

Lisa stumbled backwards into the wall and Lucy positioned herself between Owen, Gwen and the cyberwoman.

 

“What the hell was that?” Gwen asked

“What?”

“Snogging me!” She retaliated

“Last kiss for the condemned man.” He replied and Lucy could see him give a small shrug out of the corner of her eye. “Little embarrassing given we haven’t been killed. What? It’s not like I fancy you or anything.”

“I was on top of you. I could feel your hard-on” She replied

“Yeah... well you didn’t exactly struggle did you?”

“Can you two shut up?” Lucy asked over her shoulder, “Owen don’t snog her again she has a boyfriend. Gwen don’t respond to his snog, you have a boyfriend. Happy now?”

Before they could respond Ianto ran in, he glared at Lucy who still had her gun trained on Lisa’s body.  
“Lisa” he breathed.

“We had no choice Ianto.” Owen said seeing that Lucy wasn’t going to say anything. “It was kill or be killed”

 

He refused to look at them but jumped back when Lisa’s eyes opened again, Lucy grabbed him and pulled him behind her. “You guys move. NOW! IANTO MOVE! RUN”

They all started to run out of the autopsy room, followed by Lisa who pulled the knife out of her body without any problem.

Jack was also running in the main area and they all moved towards him.

“You should be dead” Owen said

“I’m the stubborn type” He replied, grabbing a wielding torch and some sauce. He turned the torch on and held the flame in front of them.

Lisa continued to walk towards them

 

“This’ll at least give you heart burn.” Jack said to Lisa

“The power will run out. I can wait.” She said in response.

“Jack stop this.” Ianto said suddenly and Lucy sighed, she had thought he had worked it out. In fact she knew that he knew they had to kill her but the cyberwoman still had the face and body, at least partially, of the woman he loved. Ianto arguing and fighting against her when she was just trying to help, hurt and Lucy did her best to ignore it. She knew this would happen when she agreed to help and didn’t tell him that she knew how it would end, and that it would not be pretty.  
“Give her a chance to surrender, she can stay in the cells. We can reverse it.”

“I told you we’re past that!” Jack said not turning round, “Hold him back.” Owen and Gwen did so whilst Lucy refused to look at him and instead kept her gun poised to shoot. Ianto may not like it and he may always hate her for it, but there was nothing else she could do.

“What are you going to do?” Gwen asked

“You don’t want to know.” Lucy replied

“Just get Ianto on there and hold him.” Jack added before looking at Lucy, “You ok?”

“I’m fine.” She replied not letting any emotion into her voice, “Let’s just do it.”

  
He threw the sauce over Lisa and the two ran onto the paving slab.

“What is it?”

“BBQ sauce, so she knows what’s for dinner” Lucy said void of emotion.

“NO!” Ianto had worked out what was going to happen. “You’ll kill her”

“Come on Tosh.” Jack mumbled playing with his wrist strap as Myfwany flew in. The slab began to rise and Ianto continued to struggle, Gwen and Owen held him back and Lucy steadfastly refused to look at him or the sight of the pterodactyl eating her dinner.

“You’ll kill her. Have some fucking mercy”

“She’s already dead.” Jack replied and they were soon out in the open.

 

Tosh ran up to join them, and Lucy got herself ready to do what she had been psyching herself up to do all evening, whatever happened she couldn’t let Ianto go back into the hub.

“It worked” Tosh said when she reached them. “What happened?”

“Don’t ask” Jack replied as they all caught their breath and tried to start to get over what almost happened.

Ianto turned round and punched Jack.

“You could have saved her” He shouted as Gwen pulled him back, “you’re worse than anything down there. One day I’ll have the chance to save you and I’ll watch you suffer and die. You’re worse than any of the monster out there”

“It was the only thing that would stop her” Jack replied angrily “You and Lucy both let this thing free in the hub. But at least she knows that what she did was wrong, she was willing to die to stop her and protect her team-mates. You just continued to put them in danger.”

Tosh tried to stop the argument so spoke, Lucy winced at what she was saying.

“Listen when I was in reception I managed to trip the lockdown timer. The power should be coming back on any second. We could get back in.”

Ianto started to run and as Lucy was the only one expecting it she was the first one to follow him.

“IANTO!”

 

They were catching up with him.

“Ianto stop.” Jack shouted

“She can’t have survived that” Gwen tried.

“I used my initiative” Tosh was apologising. “I’m sorry.”

“When I want you to think for yourself, I’ll tell you” Jack snapped at her.

“Maybe if you’d told me your plan I wouldn’t have done it.” Tosh replied, “How was I supposed to know?”

 

They ran into the tourist office and Ianto pointed the gun he had grabbed from behind the desk at them.

“Ianto don’t be stupid.” Gwen said

“I’ve nothing left to lose” He replied and Lucy could feel herself break at that sentence.

“There is always something left to lose.” Jack said

“I’m going back in to save her.” Ianto said “Anyone tries to stop me I’ll shoot them.”

“Ianto put the gun down” Gwen begged, Jack grabbed the gun, shoved Ianto against the wall, and pointed his gun at Ianto’s head.

“You make a threat like that, you’d better be prepared to follow it through. See? You disobey me now, I really will shoot you”

“Get off me.” Ianto was struggling in the hold Jack had him in but was unable to get free.

“You want to go back in there? You go back in to finish the job.”

Everyone complained at this but jack ignored them, Lucy however just checked her gun. And, upon seeing she had emptied it earlier, took the one off the floor that Jack had taken off Ianto.

“If she’s still alive” Jack continued, “you execute her”

He turned Ianto round so he was facing them.

“No way” Ianto said quietly, refusing to let himself cry but they could see that he was breaking.

“You brought this down on us, you hid her. You hid yourself from us. Now it’s time for you to stand as part of the team.”

  
Lucy knew this was her cue and stepped forward.

“He wasn’t the only one to hide her and he’s definitely not the only one hiding himself, _Captain_.” She said the last word mockingly and from the look on his face she knew he’d understood what she meant. He turned to face her but continued to keep his gun pointed at the Welshman.

“I’ll deal with you later.” He faced Ianto again, “the girl you loved has gone, your loyalty is to us now.”

“He’s not going back in there.” Lucy said firmly as she took another step forward and was now next to Ianto. “I won’t let him.”

“He allowed the cybermen to have a foothold in this world again!”

“I know.” She was as calm as she possibly could be, “and I know why you hate them more than any other creature in the universe apart from the daleks. I get that. I really do. But look at him Jack, he lost everything in Canary Wharf, everything he ever knew and you lost one person. Just one person who meant as much to you as Lisa does to him. He’s not going back in there.”

He pointed the gun at her, Gwen stepped forward to try and calm Jack down but he just shrugged her off. “You do it or I’ll execute all three of you myself.”

“Ok” Lucy shrugged, and looked straight into Jack’s eyes. “I will go in there and deal with whatever is left. But you cannot make Ianto go back in while I am. He will break and you will never fully get him back. Give me half an hour, I’ll tidy up as well. Just keep him safe and I’m sorry”

 

With that she ran down the corridor pressing the button on the way to put the hub back into lock down. She turned to see the team on the other side of the door trying to get her to open it, everyone apart from Jack who just caught her eye and nodded. Lucy knew that it would take Tosh at least ten minutes to undo the lock down from where they were which gave her time to kill... to do what it was that was needed.

Her gun was held tightly in her hands as she walked down the stairs to where she knew Lisa would be.

“LISA!” She called and the take-away girl walked out of the basement.

“Lucy. It’s me, Lisa. I took this body for Ianto so we can be together again.” Lucy’s gun wavered and she knew Lisa had seen it. “He fought so hard for me so I had to fight for him. We’ll be together forever, we can get upgraded together and you can join us.”  
“Sorry.” Lucy said and pulled the trigger, the girl’s body collapsed and she shot again just to make sure.

Now she had killed someone she felt part of her innocence leave for good and knew that there was no going back. Even if she was retconned she would always know there was blood on her hands.

She slid down the wall.

“I’m so so sorry,” She swallowed tightly then forced herself to stand up and pulled her ipod out of her pocket.

While it played in her ears she walked up the stairs to get two body bags, one for the girl and one for Lisa, she had to get it done before Ianto saw it – she hadn’t been lying. This truly would break him. She was already broken and didn’t really exist in this world, Ianto had been brought to breaking point by Torchwood and by life but he could be mended. Jack would be able to mend him but if he saw what CyberLisa had done no matter how hard Jack tried he wouldn’t be able to put the pieces back together. He would be destroyed for life even though he would wear a mask so the world never knew. She allowed that thought to overtake her as she got on with what needed to be done.

 

When the team ran into the hub she had put them into body bags and hidden the second one, she left the body bag with Lisa in by the door with the face still showing. She was dismantling the cyber conversion unit tears streamed down her face as she pulled it apart but she ignored them singing to herself along with the music.

“ _...tears and fears and feeling proud_

_To say I love you right out load._

_And dreams and schemes and circus clowns._

_I’ve looked at life that way._

 

_But now old friends are acting strange,_

_They shake their heads._

_They say I’ve changed._

_Well something’s lost but something’s gained._

_From living every day._

 

_I’ve looked at life from both sides now,_

_From win and loose and still somehow_

_Its life’s illusions I recall._

_I really don’t know life at all...”_ the tears got too heavy to ignore now and she stopped pulling it apart to dry her eyes, before starting to sing again, needing the music to ignore the thoughts running around in her mind, to ignore what she had done.

Ianto went to the open body bag and pulled Lisa close, the words reverberating with him and he held his dead girlfriend. The rest of the team just watched the two knowing that there was nothing else they could have done.

 

“ _I’ve looked at love from both sides now_

_from give and take and still somehow_

_it’s loves illusions I recall_

_I really don’t know love._

_Don’t know love._

_Don’t know love_

_At all”_

Ianto sobbed quietly and somehow that sound got through where the others hadn’t, she turned round and spotted them as she pulled the head phones out her ears.

“Jack...”

He looked at her and her tear streamed face and strode foreword pulling her into a tight hug, his anger at them for hiding this dissipating instantly, for now anyway.

“Owen, Gwen can you finish breaking this for me? Tosh can you help Ianto back to his flat? I’ll speak to him later.” The rest of the team nodded and Ianto was pulled up by the smaller woman, and the two walked out. Jack held her close while Owen and Gwen got to work silently. When she had calmed down enough to talk properly she looked up.

“There’s another body.” Owen and Gwen stopped and Jack took an intake of breath and she continued, “I couldn’t let Ianto know so I hid it. The pizza girl, Lisa killed her and then transplanted the brain. I shot her, twice. She wanted them to upgrade together, Icouldn’tletherandIknowshehadalreadybeenkilledbut...” She descended into sobs again and Jack stroked her hair and held her tight.

“It wasn’t your fault.” She heard Gwen make a sound of protest but she ignored it. “where is it?”

“Room after next” she whispered

“Go find it Gwen, and let Tosh know she has to set something up. Make sure Ianto doesn’t know.” Jack ordered, Gwen left and Owen tactfully left with her.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Jack. I know I could have done something, I should have done something but... she made him so happy and I had to try.”

“I know” He replied, “come on, let’s get you out of these blood stained clothes and I’ll take you home.”

Lucy started sobbing even harder.

“He’s going to hate me. Jack, Ianto will hate me. I can’t, I can’t Jack. I want to go home.”

“He won’t hate you Lucy, don’t be silly” Jack said soothingly trying to calm the distraught girl down.

“He will, I killed her and he’s kicked me out anyway. God all the blood, it was everywhere.” She started trying to clean her hands, to get as much of the blood off as possible, but Jack held them to stop her hurting herself.

“Listen to me Lucy Smith, you’re going to be fine. I'll get that blood off you in a bit don't worry. Ianto could never hate you. But you can stay here tonight, I’ll set up the sofa for you but you need to calm down.”

“I want my teddy.” She said quietly into his coat after a couple of minutes of silence.

“I know you do Lucy” He said soothingly, “But we don’t have him” he continued to stroke her hair until he felt her fall asleep in his arms. Jack gently wiped the blood off her hands so she wouldn't wake to them, although they would haunt her for a while.

He sighed at the mess that had happened today, but picked up Lucy and carefully put her on the sofa. Lucy immediately curled up into a ball as small as she could, as though even in her sleep she was trying to escape from everything. Jack sighed again and pulled off his coat and covered her with it, it wouldn’t do for her to wake up cold on top of everything else. She suddenly looked young and Jack was reminded that Lucy Smith was only 23 years old, although she never acted like it.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

About an hour later, he had come back from Ianto’s with clothes for Lucy to wear tomorrow and Ianto on suspension for a month. He still hadn’t worked out what he was going to do to Lucy, as although she had helped the cyberwoman.

Lucy was still on the sofa but she had managed to kick Jack’s coat off her as she succumbed to a nightmare. He could see the pain on her face and could hear the scream before it happened. Only it didn’t, Lucy sat bolt upright and screamed as he predicted but it was silent, Jack was at her side in an instant, trying to calm her down.

She had woken up but when she saw him Lucy immediately pulled away from him and curled into a tight ball trying to calm herself down and stop shaking. She refused to look weak in front of him.

He sat at Gwen's desk pretending to get on with some work while he continued to watch her until she fell asleep again – half an hour later. They both knew that he was watching her but as long as neither of them mentioned it they could pretend he wasn't and Lucy wouldn't feel as bad. Once he was sure she had actually gone to sleep he put his coat over her again and actually did get on with some work. Although he continued to look after her throughout the night, replacing the coat every time she kicked it off, he wanted to make sure she didn’t have another nightmare. She was part of his team and that made her wellbeing his responsibility, he couldn't help feeling as though it was something he had previously failed in.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The next morning when Lucy woke up it only took a few seconds to remember what had happened the day before and the fact that she now had blood on her hands that could never be washed off. As she sat up and pulled Jack’s coat off her, she realised she was holding it to her like she would hold Teddy.

Jack was working on her desk nearby and noticed she was awake. “Hi.”

“Hi” Lucy replied dumbly not sure what else to say.

“Why?” The immortal man asked plainly.

“I had to try Jack.” Lucy replied knowing that if he didn’t agree with that she said she would be retconned and lose all memories of Torchwood and Doctor Who, as it had been part of her life since she was 14, that was not an idea she was happy with. “I knew how it could and would probably end. But I had to try and save her even if it was impossible and I knew it was. You all look through Ianto, like all he is is his ability to tidy up after you and to make amazing coffee and you don’t even thank him for any of it. I had two choices, allow it to happen or to try and help. And if the only help I could offer was not letting him do it alone, then fine.”

“Why did you kill her?” Jack’s face showed no emotion.

“I killed the body of a girl she had already killed. I can't make it up to that girl family, because I let her die and I'll have to learn to live with that.” She said as though it was unimportant, pushing the emotions involved to the back of her mind. “And Lisa died months ago, Ianto just didn’t know it, or just didn’t allow himself to acknowledge it. I couldn’t let Ianto do it. You hate Torchwood 1 so much because it took Rose that you forget about everyone else who lost someone. Everyone whose family worked there and the people who were lucky enough to survive it. They lost everyone that they worked with and you just shrugged it off as unimportant.”

Jack glared at her, currently refusing to admit she was right although he knew she was. He also knew that if he had cared about the survivors, he would have spoken to Ianto about it months ago when he first joined and could have been able to stop this whole incident then and there. But his face didn’t show it as he continued to question her.

“But why _you_?”

“Because it couldn’t be Ianto.” She replied simply with a sigh, “I couldn’t let him know the full horror of just a single cyberwoman with his girlfriend’s face. All he needs to know is it killed Dr Tenzaki and that I killed the cyberwoman. He doesn’t need to know about the pizza girl.”

“Surely that’s up to me as the boss to decide?”

Lucy was annoyed and showed it.

“To be fair Jack, like I said before if you cared more about him than his coffee you wouldn’t have told him to go in there and kill her. You would have known that he would have done it and then hated himself for the rest of his life. And I don’t know that because of the show.” She continued before he could interrupt “Because on that it looks like he gets over it. I say it because I know Ianto. I know that he would just put on a mask and carry on with life because that’s Ianto. So you know what, I don’t give a damn if you retcon me, I wouldn’t know any different anyway would I? But if you think that I was going to let Ianto destroy himself you’ve got another thing coming.”

She and Jack were now standing and were in each other’s personal space when the door opened and Tosh and Owen walked in. Tosh was carrying cups of coffee from Starbucks.

“Wow, that looks like quite an argument.” Owen commented as he pulled his coat off and threw it over his chair.

Jack glared at them, “I thought I said you should come into work late.”

“We did.” Tosh replied, “even stopped to get coffee.”

“Yeah, didn’t think you were going to let tea-boy in.” Owen said sarcastically.

Jack looked at Lucy’s angry eyes and then stepped back out of her personal space before saying.

“His name is Ianto, Owen. Learn to use it, he’s more than just the tea-boy.” He sat down on Lucy’s chair and looked back at her. “Go home, he’s not angry at you. I don’t want to see you and Ianto back here until I say so. You’re on suspension, I’ll come and see you both when I’ve calmed down and can sort this out rationally. You can come in tomorrow to get a couple of DVDs if you want, but you will be accompanied at all times”

Lucy nodded and picked up his coat from where she had left it on the sofa, she handed it to him with a sad smile.

“Thank you, Jack. I’m not sure I’ll take you up on your offer straight away maybe next week if that’s allowed.”

“Just call and let me know. Go.” She smiled again and went to leave but Tosh blocked her way.

 

“I brought coffee for you, and Ianto as well.”

“Thanks Tosh.” Lucy gave a sad smile to her as well in understanding, “I’m sure if you want to come visit...”

Tosh looked up at Jack who was staring at the pair of them,

“Maybe.”

Lucy knew what Tosh meant and just nodded in understanding,

“Well I doubt we’re going to be out much. Although Ianto might go stay with his sister for a bit. Anyway,” she shrugged, “I’ve got to go.”

Tosh let her past this time and Lucy left the hub holding two cups of Starbucks coffee.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7 - Consquences

“Why?” Ianto walked into the front room where Lucy was busy pacing, this was a conversation they both knew was going to happen and they had both been putting off for the past couple of weeks. But they could do it no longer and they both knew it. Ianto needed to know why Lucy had done what she did, why she had lied to him about Lisa and why she had walked into the hub and shot her instead of him.

“You wouldn’t understand” Lucy said as she stopped pacing to face him, her face was begging him to drop it but also showed resignation and relief that they were final going to discuss the elephant in the room.  
"What do you mean?" Ianto pressed; this was more than Lucy not telling anyone about her past or what was going to happen in the future. That was understandable. This was her refusing to tell him about the choices she had made for him, that was not acceptable. Lucy sighed.

"Just... look, I mean... how could you understand?"

The archivist was normally fairly level headed but he could feel his temper start to rise.

"If you just explained, I'm sure I'd get it."

"Don't bother" Lucy said nearly begging. Earlier she had wanted them to have this conversation, thinking that she knew what she was going to say, but now she wished that Ianto had never brought it up, she had no idea what to say. How do you tell someone that their girlfriend could never have been fixed and had been dead for months? That the thing they had loved was a creature using the memories and the face of Lisa and that that she had killed an innocent simply because she was there? Or that she truly didn't believe that he would ever recover from what Jack had asked him to do?

"But I want to know why." Ianto continued, not knowing the thoughts that were running round her head

"It doesn't matter." Lucy said after a long pause, still not knowing what to say so she sat down on the sofa and started playing with the end of her plait refusing to look at Ianto.

 

Ianto took a deep breath and sat down next to her, not looking at her either.

"It mattered enough for you to do it." He said quietly

"Forget it." Lucy whispered, looking up at him briefly, "please Ianto just forget it. I wish I could."

"I'm going to find out at some point" He replied and Lucy's temper flared and she tugged on her plait even harder.

"FINE. You want me to tell you why?" She turned to face him her eyes ablaze with anger.

"Yes please" His voice was calm but she could see the determination in his eyes. Lucy was about to say everything, but the thought of Ianto's face when Jack had told him to go kill Lisa stopped her and she sagged and looked away again, hugging one of the cushions.

"I... I can't Ianto. I wish it had never happened but I don't regret what I did."

"Why not?" Ianto realised that although he might not ever find out everything he was getting closer to finding out _something_ , which would have to do for now.

"You know me Ianto. You know what I'm like, try to imagine yourself in my position what would you do?"

"I don't know" He replied truthfully, "I don't fully know the situation you're in. But I have no idea what I would do if the rift took me to a fictional world that I knew. I just..." he shrugged "I just don't know."

"Me neither, and that's my life" She said sarcastically loosening her hold on the cushion. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Ianto, but I couldn't. But what I'm not going to apologise for is going in instead of you."  
"I didn't imagine you would" He pulled the cushion out of her hold forcing her to look at him, "I just wish you'd told me the truth about Lisa." She tried to look away but Ianto wouldn't let her.

"I'm sorry."

"I can't imagine to understand what you are going through but it try and tell me something. For example..." He pretended to think seriously before smiling "Does Owen ever stop drinking and having one night stands?" Lucy smiled.

"Nope." They both sat on the sofa thinking before Lucy spoke again, "Does this mean I'm not kicked out?"

"Cook a decent dinner tonight and I'll let you stay." Ianto replied sarcastically. "I'm going to go stay with Rhiannon for a week. When I get back we'll move on and won't talk about it."

"You don't want to know more?" Lucy asked confused.  
"Course I do, but I know you Miss Smith. You won't tell me anymore no matter how much I ask."

"Nah," She got up off the sofa "Chicken and white sauce for dinner?"

"Sounds nice. I'll call Rhi and let her know that I'm going to go stay."

 

Lucy looked back at him while standing in the doorway, "Does this mean I'm forgiven?" Ianto's face turned dark.

"It means I understand and I'm willing to try and move on and get over it. Don't push it."


	8. Chapter 8 - Small Worlds

Lucy and Ianto both woke up early on the day their suspension was lifted and they were cleared to go back to work. It was a joint decision that didn't take much thinking about the night before to go in before the rest of the team did. This meant that they would not be stared at as they walked into the hub and would hopefully make it less awkward. It was also a case of returning to normal as soon as possible, and normal included the team coming in to find Ianto either on the tourist office desk or making coffee whilst Lucy was in the range shooting. They were never earlier than Jack but that was because he slept in the hub, neither of them had any idea what time Jack was ready for work, when he found the time to sleep, or even if he needed it.

"You ready?" Ianto asked as he let them into the tourist office and locked the door again behind him - it was 5am after all and Tosh would not be in for at least another three hours, she would let herself in but leave the door unlocked so that once she had got her coffee from Ianto he could go back upstairs and get some paperwork done before the early morning tourists appeared wanting to know what they should spend the rest of the day doing. It had been an agreement with the Welsh Assembly when the cover for Torchwood 3 had been decided on, not that the Assembly had much choice, the office had to be open between 8-8 so as not to ruin the Welsh tourist board and its reputation. They kept to those rules as much as possible, using them more as guidelines than actual rules; there were other tourist offices in Cardiff after all.

The two walked through the office, Ianto picking up the pile of post and files that had been left on the side as they continued down the corridor towards the hub.

"No but yes." She replied, "You?"

"Same. It'll be good to get back to work though, try and catch up on things before the team get in as well."

"I'm just looking forward to playing with my guns again, I've fallen out of practice this past month."

"You'll be fine." Ianto said with a smirk

"I need to be more than fine." The cog door opened and they slipped into the dark hub. "Looks like you've got your job cut out tidying this place up." Lucy commented with a wry smile

The floor and the desks of the hub were a mess, food cartons where everywhere as well as old files and rubbish, Ianto sighed. "1 month. I've been gone a month."

"Well you have fun, with all the tidying and stuff... I'm going to go shoot." Lucy said working her way through the hub in the darkness as she got closer to her small office and shooting range.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy was glad that when she finally emerged from the shooting range a couple of hours later the rest of the team had already turned up and weren't treating her any differently, although Tosh did welcome her back. There was a moment where it was awkward when she first appeared but Owen only rolled his eyes and asked if she liked the high score on the shooting competition that they had started. Lucy had instantly told him that she had decimated his score and that maybe he ought to get some more practice in if he didn't like being beaten by a girl. The sense of normality from Owen mocking Lucy and Lucy responding with as good as she got caused the tension to disappear and Lucy knew that although they would never forget that she had helped to hide a cyberwoman in Torchwood they had forgiven her.

"Got anything interesting?" Lucy asked as she leant against Tosh's desk.

"You mean apart from your monthly medical with Owen?" Jack asked as he walked out of his office.

"Come on Jack." Lucy moaned, "It's not like I've been working this past month so nothing could have changed between now and the last time you forced me to go through torture."

"Still not changing my mind." He said with his eyebrow raised "Just like you didn't last time, or the time before that, or the one before that come to think of it. Is there any reason why we have to have this argument every month?"

"Because one day you'll change your mind and agree that you don't need the excuse of a monthly medical to give Owen a chance to release some of his sadistic tendencies."

"I am not sadistic!" Owen called across

"Yes you are." Lucy replied and Tosh nodded.

"You've not got the best bedside manner." She said diplomatically

"I've hardly got the best patients. Besides I'm better off when dealing with dead bodies - I don't need to worry about being polite that way."

"It doesn't matter if Owen is sadistic or not." Jack interrupted "What is important is the fact that Lucy has to have a monthly medical, and it seem like I have to have a monthly argument with her about it."

"Fine." Lucy rolled her eyes, "The fact that I've been near nothing alien for the last month obviously makes no difference seeing as these medicals are to check impacts of alien technology. Besides we all know Owen just wants more of my blood to look at."

"What can I say?" Owen joked, "You're unique and I'm the only doctor who gets to study the differences, for all we know I might find something interesting by getting a fresh sample every month."

"Hang on" Gwen said, Lucy had forgotten she was there, "what's so special about Lucy's blood?"

"Rare blood type" Owen said automatically, "mixed with a genetic condition. Doesn't make any impact on her life but makes for an interesting study, not that I can publish anything I find. Isn't that right Lucy?"

"Yeah." She added with an exhale of breath, "My whole family has it."

"So if I can please deal with my grumpy patient and get this over with..." Lucy sighed and pushed herself off the desk, she looked seriously at Tosh.

"When you hear me screaming for help and none of you bother to turn up, don't be surprised if the next thing you hear after that is a gunshot and then the thud of Owen's body hitting the floor."

"As long as you tidy up and take him to the morgue yourself I don't think anyone would complain." Tosh said dryly not taking her eyes off the computer screen.

"Right now we've got the argument done and out of the way, Gwen you and me are going out. Ianto see what else you can find about what you mentioned earlier and Tosh, that letter we found last week? Can you start working on a translation for me?"

"Sure."

They all got to their assigned jobs and Lucy walked over to Owen, who quickly put the curtain up and started the physical.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

An hour or so after Owen finished torturing her in the name of medicine, Jack called the hub. "Gwen and I are on our way back. I need you to find everything you can about fairies."

"Fairies?" Tosh had said surprised although she was already entering the term into her search engine.

"Yes the Cottingley fairies anything you can find that could be useful and real."

"I'll have to search deep to find the beginnings of the lore." She mused "Fairies are everywhere and each version is slightly different."

"We'll be back in 10 minutes, meeting in 30." Jack said before hanging up. Tosh looked both bemused and annoyed before shrugging,

"Looks like I've got work to do. Ianto, have we got anything in the archives?"

"Maybe, doubt it." He replied. "I'll have a look just in case."

 

30 minutes later they were all in the meeting room, Ianto walked in with a tray full of coffees as Tosh had the famous picture of the Cottingley fairies on the screen.

"It's fake." Gwen said stubbornly

"I blame it on magic mushrooms." Ianto said dryly as he handed out the coffee.  
"What you do in private is none of our business." Jack said

"Conan Doyle believed it was true." Tosh pointed out.

"He was gaga at the time." Gwen replied quickly

" _And_ Houdini?"

"Self-publicist."

"How do you know so much about it?" Jack asked

"Because I wrote an essay on the Cottingley glass plate photographs when I was at school."

"And you remember all the information you had to know for _one_ essay?" Lucy asked sarcastically, "Bloody hell I can barely remember the over arching themes of the information my teachers told me. Let alone enough to hold my own in argument about something I did an essay on years ago."

"Some things just stick in your brain." Gwen replied "And when the girls were old ladies they admitted they were fakes."

"So where was this sighting then?" Tosh asked moving on to one of the photos that Jack had brought back with him

"In a place called Roundstone Wood." Jack replied

"I know it." Owen said from where he was sitting against one of the cabinets on the side "Has an odd history."

"Am I the only person who isn't a fountain of endless useless knowledge?" Lucy asked with a sigh

"Date of the first Doctor Who episode" Jack shot at her and Lucy responded automatically

"23rd November 1963 - An Unearthly Child, and the modern series started on 26th March 2005 - Rose."

"There you go." Jack nodded, "you filled your brain with other stuff. Hang on, _Rose_ Rose?"

"Err, yeah." She shrugged, ignoring Gwen's confused face and the rest of the team looking annoyed; although they may know more about what they were talking about than Gwen did they still had no way of putting it into context. "It's extra useless now though isn't it. Not like their useless knowledge that always turns out to be helpful in cases like this."

"Not always. Anyway, Owen?"

"Err yeah... It's always stayed wild. In the ancient times it was considered bad luck to walk in there, even to collect timber. Even the Romans stayed clear of it."

"I've had no report of any sighting" Tosh said

"You won't" Jack replied, "These things come under the radar, but they play tricks with the weather, so set up a program from unnatural weather patterns."  
"Right." Tosh started making notes on her handled machine

"Are you saying our machines can't pick them up?" Gwen asked suddenly worried, a few minutes ago this had all been a joke and now it wasn't. They had fought aliens before so why not fairies? The knowledge that they couldn't even find them was worrying.

"Nothing can." Jack replied straight faced and they could see that he wasn't really with them, he was thinking about the past. About half a minute later the look disappeared off his face. "Gwen, Owen, we're going to the woods to see what we can find. Tosh set up that program and then go back to the search, I don't know what I expect you'll find so I can't help but look for things attached to the 'chosen ones'. Ianto have a look in the archives, if they've got a circle nearby Torchwood might have met them before. Lucy you help Ianto, unfortunately your specialty isn't really needed today."

"Fine by me." Lucy shrugged "oh and Jack..." She didn't want to make it obvious that she knew this episode as Gwen was still in the vicinity but she had promised. "It sounds to me like this could be called _'Small_ _Worlds'_ and that this is the _fifth._ "

Jack looked confused for a couple of seconds before he understood what Lucy was trying to tell him. "Great well let me know what you can. Let's go; Owen, Gwen."

 

They all got to work, Owen and Gwen followed Jack and Tosh and Ianto turned on Lucy almost straight away.

"Going to tell us what the cryptic message to Jack was about?" Tosh asked

"I've got to tell him if it's an episode" Lucy replied as she drained her mug. "Only I want to keep Gwen in the dark for as long as possible. He's given me an expiry date on the secret, I've got until election day."

"So you know what's going on?"

"Vaguely." Lucy shrugged, "I know how it ends and I can remember the name of the girl - could probably pick her out in a line up, if I had to. But anything more than that not outside of major plot points and even those fairly few. It's not my favourite episode."

"And we're on episode 5." Ianto said, Lucy knew it wasn't a question but she replied anyway.

"Yeah, out of 13 in the first series."

"What were the others?"

"Gwen joining and Suzie, Gwen's first day, the ghost machine and er..." She looked awkwardly at Ianto.

"Lisa." He filled in the gap and Lucy nodded.

"We're getting through them pretty quickly." Tosh mused.

"I dunno I suppose so, I know the last one ends just before election day - I think anyway it was only ever implied. And we have one over Christmas and there's a run on from that..."

"So I shouldn't invite the family over for Christmas then?" Ianto said dryly

"It's Torchwood, did you ever expect it to be dull?" Lucy asked with a teasing tone to her voice before turning serious again, "It's not like we're in London - they have a mess to deal with every Christmas. It's almost tradition."

"There was the Sycorax last year that but apart from that it's been quiet." Tosh said defensively.

"7pm Christmas Day, Doctor Who." Lucy replied, "This year is the Titanic then..." She thought for a second, "No hang on... its series 3 so I want the Christmas before that which is pre-Martha... post-Rose, which means Donna. So it's the Spider and Donna this year and _then_ the Titantic and then cybermen in Victorian London, then the regeneration and then... 'A Christmas Carol' and that's in the future on a different planet so I think we'll be fine, and we don't have to deal with the cybers in Victorian London either." Ianto and Tosh stared at her as Lucy pulled herself out of 'fanmode' as she had dubbed it and blushed slightly, she looked awkwardly at them."Er... can we just forget I said all of that and get on with the jobs Jack gave us?"

Tosh sighed.

"I suppose I should get this program up and running, but really Lucy? A spider and the Titanic? That's what we've got to look forward to?"

"Well on the upside we don't need to worry about it cause the Doctor sorts it. We can pretend we are normal and watch it on the TV, although like I said this year isn't exactly quiet for us. But it's not a major monster..." She tried to find the right words, "just a situation? And to be fair I think that happens before Christmas. I think." She winced but Tosh and Ianto looked at each other and shrugged.

"Come on." Ianto said as he walked towards the archives. "Let's get some work done before you start telling us about every plot coming up that we don't need to deal with."

"Sounds like a plan. Oh and Tosh?"

"Hmm?" Tosh had already started working on the programming, so didn't look up from the screen

"I know Gwen keeps saying those photo's are fake but it might be interesting to run the faces of the fairies through a face recognition software at some point."

" _Interesting_ kind of interesting?"

"I can't give you the answers but I might be able to speed up the result." Lucy replied, Ianto sighed and grabbed her arm as he continued to walk away, pulling Lucy behind him. "Ow, yes I'm coming, I'm coming."

Tosh laughed and got back to her work, Lucy's words ringing in her ears. She made a small note to herself to run the recognition software as soon as possible. It would take a while because she would need to up the quality as much as possible in order to get the best result, but as it was only a small area of the photo each face would only take an hour or so.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

They found nothing useful that night, once Jack, Gwen and Owen came back and helped out and when Jack sent them home they were all slightly disheartened.

"Wait a sec" Jack called from his office as they were all preparing to leave, "I've just had a weird call from the police. They've had a cell death they can't explain, want us to go check it out."

"Well I've got late night tomorrow night." Owen said quickly, "So I'm going out to the pub, it'll still be dead tomorrow morning if you need a more in depth look."

"Fine, Gwen, Tosh?" Jack looked at the two women and they shrugged,

"Sure." Tosh agreed, "it's not the first time I've had to cover for Owen."

"I'll come." Lucy said as she pulled her leather jacket on, "got nothing else to do."

"You and Ianto are going home." Jack said firmly "You got in at 5am and have been working nonstop. You both need to sleep."

"I'll be fine." Lucy replied with a shrug, "I got plenty of sleep over this past month."

"I'm trying to be a good boss here, now go home to bed."  
"Are you sure that's not harassment sir?" Ianto asked and Jack smirked

"You wish. Now do we need to drive you on our way to the cells or are you going to go by yourself?"

"We're going." Ianto said directing Lucy towards the car park. Lucy knew that trying to object at this point would be useless no matter how much she wanted to, it was annoying her how little she knew about this episode as well. Although Jack had allowed her to take DVDs out while she was on suspension she had decided to watch Doctor Who instead of Torchwood, thinking it would be better to not remind herself of everything that was going to happen in her life in the coming months that she wasn't allowed to change. She was starting to regret that choice now.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The next morning Lucy and Ianto walked into work at their normal early time, although not as early as the day before. The tone in the Hub was muted as though something terrible had happened, Jack was sitting in his office getting on with work while Tosh did the same at her desk, looking over at Jack every now and again as though she was checking up on him. Ianto went straight over to the coffee maker while Lucy walked over to Tosh.

"What happened?" She asked quietly.

"A friend of his 'Dads' died last night." Tosh replied equally quietly

"Ahh." Lucy understood immediately and then cursed as she realised that she remembered Estelle and what had happened, they had shown it in the damn episode.

"Exactly" Tosh said "and we can't track these things apart from through the weather patterns. I've got the program up and running no problem and the second we pick anything up we'll be ready to go. But apart from research there is nothing we can do, and it's not even like there is much research to do. I'm running the faces through the scanner like you suggested but I'm having to do them one at a time and I need to tidy them up as well to get the best result possible if we get any result."

"So we have to act as though we don't have a case on because we can't do anything else then?"  
"Precisely. All we know about these things is they can control the elements and they protect their chosen child. The call out last night from the cells - he choked on flower petals. Jack said it's a common thing for them to do but I don't understand it. If they were so powerful why?"

"They're children." Lucy said with a shrug, remembering everything that had been said to her as she was growing up "Kids can be and often are mean, because they can be. If they want to hurt you and they're more powerful they will. Consequences aren't a thing in their mind and these are powerful children - whose going to punish them? How are they going to punish them? Send them into the naughty corner for five minutes?"

"I think Jack wants to shoot them." Tosh replied also remembering the bullies at her school, the incident seemed a little better now she understood the motivation behind it although the thought of school bullies with this level of power was a scary one.

"What difference is that going to make to them though?"

"Might kill them."

"It probably would, but there's more than one of them and they can take away the air we breathe. Killing one would mean in all our deaths - probably the deaths of everyone in the area in their anger, if not more."

"What do we do then?"

"I don't know" Lucy sighed, she didn't like having to lie to her friends and she was certain that she knew she was lying as well, as she had admitted to the Japanese woman that she knew how this story went and Toshiko wasn't one for forgetting the details. She wasn't surprised when Tosh raised an eyebrow at her and turned to get back on with her work, silently declaring the conversation over.

 

Ianto walked over with a tray and three mugs of coffee on top of it, Lucy took Jack's as well as her own.  
"I'm going in to talk to him anyway." She explained, Ianto nodded in understanding before putting the tray back and starting to get on with his job - the hub needed to be tidied up a bit, and Myfwany needed to be fed before he went down to the archives.

Lucy walked over to Jack's office and knocked on the doorframe as she walked in.

"I've brought your coffee and wondered if you wanted to talk." Jack took the mug but didn't say anything, "Fair enough, I didn't actually think you would but thought I should probably offer, seeing as I'm one of the few people who knows the truth after all. I'm presuming you met her post-Doctor, so your second time in WWII, cause you were hardly the settle down type beforehand and besides you were only in that time to pull a con." Jack looked up at her from his mug and Lucy blushed. "Fuck, sorry Jack. I didn't think about what I was saying. Anyway the real reason I came in here was to say that you almost certainly don't want to talk to anyone but just to remind you that shooting is a good way to get rid of some extra stress. Plus according to the Hub rules you need to train for at least an hour a week before you can leave the hub with a weapon and you haven't done that for over a month."

Lucy could see she'd broken Jack's barrier as he smirked at her.

"Are you really going to try and enforce that rule with me? In full knowledge that isn't actually a Torchwood rule?"

"It got you to say something didn't it? And I'm not that stupid, I've got no chance at being better than you - ever. Plus it's totally a real Torchwood rule. We're the only one left - apart from Archie - and it's our rule. Therefore it is a Torchwood rule. Just like you're the head of the whole Torchwood institute by default. You agreed with the hub rules making them official Torchwood rules twice over."

Jack just looked at her.

"I'm not sure it works that way."

"My logic is flawless." Lucy replied with a smile, "anyway, I'm planning on catching up with my paperwork up here for the afternoon, I've got a month's worth of Torchwood to catch up on. So the range is free if you want to use it."

"Thanks." He said, Lucy could see that he meant it, just as his phone rang. "Gwen? ... I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Need back up?" Lucy asked, Jack relayed the question and was grateful when the reply was negative; it meant that whatever the problem was it wasn't an emergency.

"Jack." Lucy said as he hung up and grabbed his great coat. "I know that they want their chosen one and she's just a child, but how can we stop it? What if she wants to go and it stops people dying?"

"I don't know." Jack replied seriously, "But we can't let them keep killing."  
"They're trying to defend their friend."

Jack didn't say anything but Lucy could see that he was thinking about it, he pulled his coat on and the pair left his office. She went to the sofa and grabbed the paperwork and he left to go and help Gwen.

 

When Jack came back to the hub, Gwen was in tow; Owen had turned up about an hour earlier. "What happened?" Tosh asked, she could see that Gwen was angry.

"They ransacked my flat, smashed everything up, petals and twigs and dirt everywhere. Took us hours to tidy it up."

"Are you ok?"

"Fine, just a bit shaken up. Rhys is livid and wants to report it to the police, but they can't do anything. And I had to let him call it in because if I don't it'll look suspicious - I don't like lying to him."

"The good news is you are both still alive." Lucy pointed out, "It's not like they aren't powerful enough to kill you, so the fact that they didn't means they only wanted to scare you."

"And that makes me feel loads better, thanks!" Gwen retorted sarcastically.

"Tosh" Jack said stopping the argument between Gwen and Lucy before it began, "I want a report on all unexplained deaths in the area, see if any are ours and linked with this."

"What's the weather forecast today?" Tosh asked

"Sunny spells" Ianto replied straight away.

"It's happening again." Tosh zoomed in on the map, pin pointing the area of freak weather. Lucy looked at her watch.

"10:30, it's break time for schools." They all looked at her and she shrugged, "The chosen one is a child yeah? Therefore these things are going to happen on a child's timetable and not ours. The man yesterday was arrested about an hour after the schools finished for the day, so if the child is in danger now I would guess they are being bullied by other pupils."

"How do you know what time schools have their morning break?" Jack asked, Lucy stared at him and looked slightly uncomfortable.

"I err... just one of those things that always stuck in my head. Break at 10:30, lunch 12:15, finish at 3. I mean all schools are slightly different but those are the rough timings." They could all tell she wasn't telling the complete truth but it didn't matter because they had a job to do and she was probably right in her guess for the cause of the situation.

"Let's go."

 

They piled out of the SUV in the school car park, parents picking up students. Jack flashed his badge at the front desk.

"Hi, we're here to ask a few questions." The receptionist looked confused but nodded.

"Can we talk to the teacher who was on duty?" Lucy asked

"Kate Ried, she teaches year 3. I think she's in shock though."

"That's understandable, we've just got a couple of questions about what happened." Jack said turning on the charm offensive

"She's in the staff room, I'll go get her for you."  
"Thank you for your help."

A minute or so later a young woman walked up the corridor to meet them, she was pale and wrapped in a blanket.

"You wanted to speak to me?"

"We were just wondering if you could tell us exactly what happened?"  
"You police?"

"Not quite." Owen said, "we deal with things like this that are a bit... unusual."

"In Cardiff?"

"Happens more often than you would think, so?"

"I've got some stuff to do in my classroom, can I tell you on the way?"

"No problem."

They started to walked down the corridor, Lucy only half listening as she looked at all the displays on the wall. This job and walking through a primary school again was making her feel homesick and she couldn't help but wish she was still suspended; why did it have to start happening the day she came back, why not a couple of days earlier and then she wouldn't have to deal with it?

"I've never seen anything like it. It was so sudden. Then it... then it just ended."

"Was anyone hurt?" Owen asked, always the doctor.

"No two children were almost scared to death, but they're ok. And there was little Jasmine in amongst it all. She hadn't been touched, the sun was shining down on her." Owen and Tosh slipped away with the equipment to take some readings as Gwen joined them again. This brought Lucy out of her thoughts.

"What's Jasmine's relationship with the other two girls?"

"Jasmine's a bit of a loner, doesn't really have any friends. She struggles with the others, away with the fairies a bit"

"These other two girls though" Lucy pushed, "are they friendly towards her or not?"

"They're a couple of years above her, but no I don't think they like her."

"Do they bully her?"

"Maybe... I don't know. Why all these questions?"  
"We can't tell you that I'm afraid." Jack said "Whose Jasmine?"  
"Jasmine Pearce, she's a pupil of mine?"

"You teach year three?" Lucy asked and the teacher nodded "So Jasmine's 7 or 8?"

"She's 8."

"Have you sent her home already?"

"Yeah, her parents live fairly close. Her mum was one of the first to get here."  
"Do you know what her home life is like?"

"I think she's alone there as well - she's an only child, her father left when she was a baby and her mother found a new bloke a while back, although I don't think they got married. I don't think she gets along with her stepfather but she doesn't say anything."

"Ok thanks for your help." Jack said as they reached the classroom door

"The chosen one?" Gwen asked

"Yeah." Jack replied, "I'll get Ianto to find out where she lives and we'll go straight there."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy watched as the fairies wrecked the party and started attacking the man they assumed was Jasmine's stepfather, everyone panicking and little Jasmine standing calmly in the middle, watching it all with a smile on her face. Gwen looked horrified and Jack looked like he didn’t know what to do as he tried to beg the fairies into stopping. Lucy decided to do what she has always done with her little sister when she felt out of her depth, talk to the child directly.

She walked forward and bent down to Jasmine’s height, “Hi Jasmine” She said with a smile, “I’m Lucy, I need you to promise me something.”

“I want to go” Jasmine said and Lucy nodded, knowing there was nothing she could do.

“I know you do. But I still need to hear that promise, and then you can go. Ok?”

“Jack!” Gwen shouted behind her trying to get him to save the day but she ignored it.

“I need you to promise me that you’re unhappy here. Even if your friends hadn’t chosen you, that you wouldn’t want to stay. Can you do that?”

Jasmine’s mother was close by and she was looking over, trying to decide between her dead boyfriend and her daughter, she was being held back by Owen. Jasmine looked at her, at the fairies, at Roy's dead body and then back at Lucy who was waiting patiently for an answer.

“I don’t like it here, I want to be in the forest with my friends.”

“Ok” Jack said crouching down to join them, “But I want your friends to promise me something too. I need them to promise that they are going to keep you safe.”

Two of the fairies landed behind the little girl, standing like her bodyguards. “She is one of us, we could not hurt her. She lives forever.”

The two members of Torchwood nodded, happy with that agreement and stepped back. “Take her” Jack said simply.

 

“Wait” Lucy said, suddenly needing to know if they could answer her question, and voicing her thoughts before she’d even realised that she was thinking them. “Before you go... if you are constant across all of time and space does that count for universes as well?”

“It does, and she is not one of us but she is a happy child and because of who you are and what you have done we will look over her for you, until she no longer needs us.” The fairies replied, answering the question she was really asking.

“Thank you, it is more than I could ever have asked for. I just wanted to know she was happy and you have given me a great gift that I can never repay.” Lucy smiled at Jasmine, “Go join your friends, Jasmine. They are waiting for you. Be happy.”

Jasmine grinned up at them and her mother finally came out of her trance screaming for her little girl as she skipped away, out of the garden with her fairy friends as she became one of them herself.

 


	9. Chapter 9 - Countrycide

After Lucy and Ianto had came back from their suspension apart from the first couple of days and the incident with the fairies, Jack spotted that Lucy was quieter than before and doing her best to stay unnoticed and out of sight.

Lucy had noticed this in herself as well but wasn't sure how to pull herself out of this funk. Since appearing in this world she had thrown herself into everything that was happening - she wasn't sure how long this was going to last and had decided to live every fans dream the way she _should_. However since killing Lisa and knowing that she was the reason that the family of the pizza delivery girl - Annie - thought she had committed suicide, Lucy had found herself falling back into her old habits. Not letting others notice her was one of the first things she'd learnt. The second was to make everyone think she was fine, if they did notice her. Staying out of sight was fairly difficult in a team of 6, especially since they discovered Ianto's secret and that Jack was forcing him to join the team more instead of just tiding up after them. But for Lucy, who couldn't remember ever not having a secret which meant that she wanted to stay out of sight, it wasn't as difficult as she originally thought and feared that it would be. She got her work done on time and although she joined them on the rugby outing all she needed to do was to join in the conversation when needed, but mainly to just listen and nod. People noticed if you stayed out of sight, but if you made all the right noises at the right time they never noticed anything was wrong.

This worked well although she was lonely at work she still talking and enjoyed spending her spare time with Ianto outside of Torchwood. He was sure that Ianto knew that she was doing but he didn't bring it up.

 

Staying in the shadows worked until Jack walked down from his office with a camping rucksack on his back. It seemed out of place and in direct contrast to his normal WWII wear and yet somehow he managed to pull it off.

"Team building trip" He said with a smirk

"Where are we going?" Gwen asked as they all stopped what they were doing to look at their boss.

"Brecon beacons" The captain replied, Lucy's face lost all of its colour as she remembered the episode that was about to happen. "We're going camping. Every 10 years people disappear in this area, we're going to find out why."  
"I'm not going camping." Owen argued as he pulled his bloody gloves off and threw them in the bin,.

"It's a _team_ building trip and you're part of the team." Jack replied his voice leaving no room for arguments. "UNIT is lending me a few people to keep an eye on the rift while we're out. You've got 2 hours to get everything ready, and they'll be here by then. Once they are here - we're off."  
Everyone grumbled but moved to go home and pack a bag, Lucy didn't move from her seat. She stared at Jack, her mask a face of horror. She couldn't go. She couldn't face this.

They only noticed her lack of movement once Gwen had left the hub, Owen was following her and had nearly gone as well but he happened to glance back, the second he spotted Lucy he stopped. This caused Tosh to almost walk into him and Jack to look up, Owen gestured at Lucy and Jack walked over to her.

"Lucy?" He asked and her voice broke as she tried to reply and work out what to say.

"I... I can't... please"

"Why are you so scared Lucy?" Jack asked speaking to her like someone would speak to a spooked animal.

Lucy was trying to not think about what was hiding in the Beacons. The images on the TV screen of the episode that she hated to watch. Plus the knowledge the that was going to happen was going to be worse as it wouldn't be toned down for the TV screen as well as the smell that was going to go with it.  
"Please Jack..."  
"Why are you so scared?" Jack repeated

"I can't tell you." Lucy replied, her eyes coming back to focus on Jack and the hub instead of her memories. "You know I can't tell you what's going to happen. But I can't go, please don't make me go." She stared to panic and Ianto moved away from the door to kneel beside her in an effort to calm her down.

"31 episodes and I can watch 30. I can't watch this one please don't make me live it. I can't live it. I'll take you to Madame Tuassuads... Please just don't make me.... I can't go through their harvest."

"You're petrified of waxworks." Ianto said, understanding exactly how scared she really was. "Jack, Lucy wouldn't go there for an offer to travel in the TARDIS." He explained to the Captain.

"Well if it's that scary why should we go at all?" Owen asked from the door.

"Well we need to calm Lucy down before we do anything." Ianto snapped in response, "She's on the verge of hyperventilating."

"Keep her focussed on something," Owen replied "There's nothing else that I can do unless you want me to knock her out."  
"Let's keep that as plan B" Jack said sarcastically "Lucy, keep looking at Ianto and breathe"  
"Don't make me go there Yan... I can't... please... I can't do it"  
"I'm not going to make you do anything" Ianto replied, "you need to calm down Lucy, breathe with me. In and out... that's it... in and out."

 

It took a couple of minutes but Lucy eventually calmed down, she was curled up in a chair in Jack's office holding a hot coffee. Jack stood in front of her and Ianto sat behind her; Jack had told Tosh and Owen to go back home and pack. Ianto was only allowed to stay in case she panicked again, along with a promise that he would stay silent.

"You want to tell us what this is about?" Jack said leaning on the desk watching her seriously, "I wasn't expecting that reaction when I mentioned a team camping trip."

Lucy didn't say anything but stared at her mug instead as though it would all disappear

"Lucy!" Jack said forcing her to answer the question

"What do you want me to say?" She spoke quietly

"The truth is normally the best, but I'm not sure it fits this current situation." Jack replied flippantly

"The truth is that what's hidden in the Beacons petrifies me, but you need to go."

"What scares you so much that you can't face?" Jack mused knowing that she couldn't reply. he thought for a bit then spoke again, "Ok so you'll be a danger risk on this mission then?"

Lucy nodded, not trusting her voice to stay steady.

"But we still need to go, not just for team building but because there is a creature hiding there that needs to be stopped."

"Creatures, plural" Lucy amended, not correcting Jack on his assumption that these were aliens of some sort, because although they may have been born human, Lucy couldn't think of them as such. Or rather the problem was that she _could_ think of them as human and she knew that what they were doing was horrible but that the Master was right, 'human beings, the greatest monsters of them all'.

"There's more than one of them?"

"Yeah" Lucy breathed, "and you won't see them coming."

"Don't give too much away." Jack said with a small smile, "it takes all the fun out of it." Lucy couldn't help but give a small smile back.

"Time travel is such a pain." she agreed.

"Exactly. Now I'll leave you here with the UNIT guys on the proviso that you don't go out into the field without them if you need to. You're not in charge in the field, and they are setting up their own base as I'm not having them in the hub. I may not like UNIT but there are times that they know what they are doing. You're to spend the time you're not in here at their base. They'll take what you say into account but don't have to act on it."

"Agreed." Lucy said quickly in case Jack changed his mind. "Thank you Jack. I will stand with you throughout the rest of the other 30 episodes, but I can't face this one."  
"No problem kid." Jack said "Just maybe next time tell me that instead of having a full blown panic attack, or at least give us some warning."  
"I'll try." Lucy said with a shrug, now that she knew that she wasn't going to be forced to go to the countryside she felt uncomfortable with all the attention that was on her again.

"And Lucy..." The captain pulled her out of her thoughts, seeing that she was talking herself into a potentially dark place.

"Yeah?"

"We're all friends here, no need to hide as much as you do." She looked shocked that he had noticed, "The others might not have worked it out yet, but I am supposedly in charge of you lot. I tend to notice when one of my team is hiding from the rest of us. It's a team of 6, not that difficult to spot. This was predominantly a team building trip that happened to involve a case and not the other way round, it's not the best team building if the person who needs to get more involved in the team isn't going."  
Ianto gave a small cough in the corner and Jack rolled his eyes but amended his statement, "Ok now that I've recognised that I have a team of 6 and not 5, I'm making a point of keeping an eye on all of you. Better?"

"Much." Ianto said as he stood up, "I'll go pack my staff and text Tosh and Owen to let them know they only have an hour and a half before UNIT get here and we leave, and that Lucy won't be coming with us. All we need to do is come up with an excuse for Gwen - seeing as she still doesn't know."

"Can't we just say that someone needs to stay and keep an eye on the rift?" Lucy shrugged "It's not a complete lie."

 

“Ianto, you go pack for the trip.” Jack ordered, “I need to speak to Lucy about things she needs to do while we’re gone”

Ianto nodded and Lucy smiled awkwardly at him, now she had calmed down she couldn’t help but feel stupid for how she had panicked earlier. It wasn’t like the team was going to fight the Daleks, or the cybermen, or even the Year That Never was that was going to happen next year. These were just humans, simply humans. They shouldn’t cause her to panic so much. Out of all of the things that had happened to her since arriving why was it the cannibals who were scaring her.

“What should I know?”  
“That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” Jack said once he was sure that Ianto had gone. “This is a conversation that is long overdue. How are you Lucy?”

“Apart from feeling embarrassed for just having a panic attack…” She shrugged. “I’m fine.”  
“Lucy just over a month ago, you killed a woman.” Jack spoke calmly and Lucy shifted in her seat.

“Like I said Jack, I’m fine. I mean I’m not fine with killing someone, but she was already dead. So I suppose I didn’t really kill her.” She tried to look everywhere apart from at her boss who was just sitting in his chair waiting for her to say more.

“What do you want me to say?” She asked minutes later to fill the silence that was becoming overwhelming. “I can’t get the image out of my head, my hands covered in blood and the blood spurting out of the bullet holes. The one I put in her. God, she was innocent, just delivering pizza for us like normal. And I killed her. Me, Lucy Jones. I’m just a geek Jack, my life was all about staying quiet, looking after my family, watching TV shows and reading books and now I’ve killed someone. I… I can’t sleep. She doesn’t leave me alone Jack, I see her everywhere I look, on the streets when I go out. Haven’t been able to eat pizza because every time I try I see the pizza boxes on the floor, covered in blood.”

“You know you’re right.” He said, moving so he was no longer sitting behind his desk, instead he moved to lean against the front of his desk “It’s not your fault.”

“See logically, logically I get that.” Lucy nodded. “I can think that but it doesn’t stop the dreams.”

“Nothing will.”

“So what did you want to talk to me about, apart from to tell me that there is nothing that you can do. I know that. I knew that before I even did it. I didn’t need to, I could have pretended I didn’t know anything to do with Lisa. But I did, I got to know her knowing how it was going to end. Because Ianto was right, before he tried to take her off the machinery she was still human, at least her mind appeared to be human. She was nearly my friend - as much as you can be someone’s friend knowing that you’re going to have to kill them. So what was it you wanted to know Jack? What was it you wanted me to tell you?”

“I wanted you to say the truth.”

“I shot and killed a being.” She shrugged. “Annie might have already been killed by Lisa, but it looked liked she was alive, it felt like she was alive and I killed her. I can’t change that, I can’t ever forget that but I can try and ignore the small voice in my mind that calls me a murder that says my sister would hate me for it - because she could never understand - how can anyone understand what it feels like.”

“I might.” Jack offered.

“Really? Because by killing Annie, by letting her die, I made sure that the Cybermen could not return; they might manage it in the future and there is nothing I can do about that. But all I can do right now, when I wake up and her face is the first thing I see, when I can still feel the blood on my hands.” She looked down at them again and could see the stain on them, Lucy automatically started wiping them, as though the stain was real and could be removed. “Is to remind myself that right now the world is safe and that only two people died in a cyberman attack. 2 people that I can never forget but only two. So in answer to your earlier question Captain, I’m fine and I will continue to say that until I actually am and I can look at myself in the mirror again and be happy about what I see.” She stood up. “Can I go?”

Lucy wasn’t asking for permission and they both knew it, but Jack nodded anyway and she walked out and down to the shooting range. But she didn’t shoot anything, just sat there and continued to load and empty the gun simply going through the motions to try and focus on something simple instead of her own continually racing thoughts in an effort to get her mind to stay quiet for just a few moments of peace.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy didn’t have much to do that weekend while the others were in the countryside, there was a weevil to catch but apart from that she spent time completing her paperwork, playing in the shooting range with a couple of UNIT soldiers, watching the rift and a couple of the lighter Doctor Who episodes. Her phone rang and she scrambled to find it on the mess that she called her desk.

“Jack? Are you ok? You all there?”

“We’re fine, although Gwen was shot but she’s fine now. Any problems your end?”

“Nope, we’ve got a new weevil – I’m thinking Bob - but everything else is fine. Damn lucky, managed to corner him and got the spray before he jumped me. Don’t worry I did make sure I had UNIT with me. I’ve put him next to Janet. Are you sure you are ok? What about Ianto how is he?”

“He’s fine, a bit beaten up but apart from that he’s ok. We’re waiting for the police and then we’ll be back.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, “Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for not forcing me to go.”

“It’s ok. I understand why you were so scared.”

“The whole universe and I will try I really will, but humans? They can be brilliant but he was right, ‘the greatest monsters of them all.’ ‘Why do you kill people? Because it’s fun’ ‘because it makes me happy’” She sighed and rested her head against the wall, closing her eyes in relief that everything was ok. “Make sure it’s the real police yeah Jack? Not that you have any reason to believe otherwise but I'm paranoid.”

“Yeah. No problem. Someone will call you just before we leave, or at least send you a text.”

“I’ll be waiting... I’m thinking of renting some stupid comedies and buy insane amounts of sugar for Ianto and I tonight, and I might buy him some alcohol as well – if he’s lucky. I can't imagine he's going to want to sleep, unless Owen has some magic non-nightmare medicine, in which case he's in the wrong job. He should be making millions selling it on the market.”

Jack laughed.

“I think Owen's lacking in that particular solution. I’m sure Ianto will be glad you are looking after him, hang on,” the phone was muffled for a bit before Jack came back, “he says thank you.” Lucy couldn’t help but smile, relieved that they were all safe.

“Tell him it’s no problem.” She replied, “I’m just glad he’s ok. It looked bad on the screen... are you sure Owen has given him a full going over and hasn’t just stayed at Gwen’s side?”

Jack sighed, “He’s fine.”

“I know... still... it’s Ianto. Stench of human flesh probably hit close to home...”

“Lucy”

“...And he was completely battered by them when he tried to save Tosh. Jack, he’s still on prescription sleeping tablets from Canary Warf, although he should be coming off them soon I think. And damn I shouldn't have told you that but you know what I mean...”

“Lucy”

“I know” She replied forcing herself to calm down, “I need to stop worrying about you all.”

“Hang on the police are here so we’ll leave in about half an hour or so.”

“’K, see you soon. Bye”

“Bye” Her boss replied and hung up, Lucy sighed in relief that everything had gone ok.


	10. Chapter 10 - Random Shoes

The second Owen said she was fine to go Lucy jumped off the bed in the medbay. "For the record Owen you don't need to stab me so hard to get my blood. Have you found anything interesting yet?"

"Do you actually care?"

"Be nice to know." She shrugged, "I'm tortured every month for this after all.

"Everyone has a medical once a month." Owen said as he pulled off his gloves and washed his hands. "It's not just you, you're not that special."

"No, but you always keep me for longer. I swear my file is bigger than the others."  
"Well when you first you here you were malnourished, with not much muscle and weak bones. Plus I'm running tests on your blood which is why I take a sample each month. But yes I keep you here longer to make sure that you are improving at a steady rate from life before Torchwood." He was careful not to use the term abuse, as he knew it wouldn't go down well with his colleague, even though he was 99% certain that was the case.

"Am I?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.

"You're no longer underweight and you have muscle. So yes I would say you've improved. But in answer to your original question it looks like the base code of the two universes are different, they split off from each other before life was properly formed probably. Which is another reason why I need to keep your blood stocked in such large amounts, no one in the universe is a suitable blood donor, you are completely unique. So if anything happens to you I need your blood in supply." He opened a cuboard. “Look your blood!” Lucy stared at the cold blood and then back at him before deciding not to mention just how weird that felt.

"So I'm a freak."  
"You're... completely unique." Owen replied trying to find the right words.  
"Tomato, tomarto." Lucy said with a shrug. "Can I go and have you got any idea what Gwen is actually working on?"  
"Yes you can go and I think she's trying to find out what happened to the kid who was always following us around - she thinks he may have had an artefact of some sort. Personally I think he was just a geek who got unlucky and she's trying to appease that bleeding heart of hers. Now piss off."  
"Gladly." Lucy replied with a smirk, trying to work out if she should tell Jack or not that they were currently living an episode. It was hardly like 'Random Shoes' was in anyway important and she couldn't really remember anything about it, apart from the fact that the kid was a ghost following Gwen. It was because she was thinking about other things that she hadn't notices that her phone had fallen out of her pocket when she jumped off the bed.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

It was only after she got an orange alert in the shooting range and she went up to Jack's office that she found out. Owen was standing in front of Jack's desk looking angry and holding Lucy's phone.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked confused, although she didn't like this episode - and was yet to tell Jack that it was an episode - she thought she would have remembered if something important happened

"You left your phone in the medbay." Owen said angrily, Jack just looked resigned to the idea that an argument was going to start.

"Err... sorry. I hadn't realised."

"You had a phone call." He continued and Lucy was confused for a second as she tried to work out who was calling her, her list of contacts was hardly long. It was when she realised who the phone call must have been from that she also realised why Owen was so angry.

"Ahhh."  
"When were you going to say that you didn't retcon Carys?"

"I asked Jack, he said it was ok and that she was my responsibility. What's wrong?" Lucy looked at them confusion written all over her face. "Jack, you know about Carys I asked for your permission. What's this about?"

"I also remember saying that she was your responsibility and not to let anyone else find out."  
"It's not my fault that Owen answered my phone." Lucy argued, "I hardly meant to leave it in the medbay. It was an accident."  
"Why wasn't she retconned anyway?" Owen asked, "What about her was so fucking special?"  
"We know that memories and other sparks of thought can break through the retcon." Lucy said with a sigh as Jack gestured that it was up to her to explain to the angry Londoner why she had broken the secrecy. "Gwen proved that was possible and she only saw a drawing of a knife which Suzie was holding for less than half a minute. She might be in the minority, is certainly in the minority who can break it that easily, but it is entirely possible that with strong enough memories and a strong enough reminder that it can be broken by anyone." Lucy was getting less defensive as she explained her reasoning and started pacing up and down, since it had happened and she had become friendly with the young woman she was more and more certain she had made the right choice. "Carys was trapped in her own body, she was fighting for control while an alien used it to kill through sex. Giving her Retcon is like using a band aid over a gaping wound, it would remove the memories but might not remove the emotions attached to them. And even if it does, what happens the next time she has sex? A link that strong will almost certainly break it, and then we'll have a petrified emotionally vulnerable woman walking the streets of Cardiff with knowledge of Torchwood. She won't be able to talk to anyone about it, they'll lock her up."  
"So you decided not to Retcon her." Owen concluded, feeling less angry now he had heard the train of thoughts which had ended in the breaking of protocol. "It wasn't because you felt guilty about not being about to change anything or because of your future knowledge?"  
"No!" Lucy replied emphatically, shaking her head. "I honestly thought it would be the best thing for her. I can't do much but I'm here on the other side of the phone willing to listen when she needs it."  
"Ok?" Jack asked Owen, "all sorted now. Happy that Lucy isn't abusing her position?"  
"Yeah." Owen agreed as he passed Lucy back her phone. "It was the secret more than anything else."  
"Great, now piss of the pair of you. Gwen seems to be hovering outside my office for something. Lucy, any help?"  
"If it's what I think it is, I know pretty much bugger all apart from the fact we've currently got a ghost. It's a really dull filler episode designed to show off Gwen's 'humanity'"

"Her bloody bleeding heart you mean." Owen scoffed.

"That too." Lucy agreed, Jack just pointed at the door and the pair of them left, leaving it open for Gwen to go in after them.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Eugene _ate_ an alien eye?" Tosh said in surprise.

"The geek actually had something of use?" Owen was more surprised that their stalker wasn't completely insane when he said that he had an alien artefact that they would want to look at.

"From what Gwen said it was a Dogon Sixth Eye" Jack explained, "it's what causes their species to look into the past and understand their lives properly."  
"And he ate it..."

"Yup.

"What does that mean for Eugene?" Tosh was curious, if this thing allowed you to understand your past and he had eaten it just before he died, something must have happened.

"It means a dull Gwen centric filler episode as she tried to work out what happened to Eugene and look more into his life as he watched and followed her as a ghost." Lucy explained. "Honestly I pretty much forgot all about it until it actually happened. And because nothing actually happens I didn't bring it up."

"Fair enough" Owen shrugged. "I'm not sure if it's something I would want to watch more than once."  
"The only reason I've ever seen it more than once is because I'm a completionist when it comes to box setting shows."

"See I get that, but there are some that are so bad that you can just jump over."  
"But then it's not watching the whole series."

"Anyway, getting back on track." Jack said, drawing the attention away from the conversation between Owen and Lucy. Gwen's gone to the funeral and is going to pick up the eye after and maybe pop in on the wake. I said I'll go pick her up after and go on the routine weevil search, any of you coming?"  
"While that sounds fascinating I think I've got a prior engagement to put needles in my eyes." Owen replied sarcastically, all the others quickly begged off as well. Weevil hunts were never fun when you knew where they were, when you were just checking to make sure none had escaped or were in any of the usual areas it was even worse. To the point that a weekly rota had been devised for who was doing that particular chore, Jack wasn't impressed but understood why they weren't interested - it wasn't something he enjoyed doing much either but it was something that was needed.

"Lucy, anything interesting soon?" He asked

"Uhmm... there's five episodes left this series I think, maybe six. This one's the only filler."  
"So at least five big(ish) things happening in the next couple of months."  
"Yeah." She pulled a face. "Sorry."  
"Don't be, at least you can give us some warning. Right;" he threw his coat on and started issuing orders for the rest of the evening "Ianto prep the archives for the Dogon Eye, Tosh I want progress on that translation for tomorrow morning; Owen can you put together what you've learnt about Janet into a legible file instead of just your notes? Lucy I need the finance for the month sorted and can you get on the phone to Parker and see if he'll let us at least look at what he's got so we can take any of the really dangerous things away. I'll see you all tomorrow morning."


	11. Chapter 11 - Out of Time

Lucy stood with Owen, Gwen and Jack on the small runway at Cardiff airport, it was a week and a half before Christmas and they had all conceded that their Christmas was not going to be normal; even though they had time off, the job came first. They were however grateful that this wasn't an enemy they had to fight against, it was simply a spike in the rift that they needed to check out.

Things became more complicated when a plane appeared in the sky asking for permission to land. All Lucy could remember about this story was the fact that it existed and the fate of the individuals that had flown through the rift and that would never be returning.

Jack looked surprised when he first saw the old fashioned plane in the air and he seemed to realise straight away what had happened, he glanced over at Lucy who nodded - both to tell him that he was correct and that she knew what was going to happen. He was getting more and more annoyed with her refusal to tell Gwen the truth but didn't say anything; he had given her a deadline of the 4th May and knew that she would find some way to tell Gwen by then, if not he would do it himself.

"We stay and we help them anyway we can." Jack ordered and they all agreed. It was their job to deal with everything that came through the rift, hostile or not. He interrupted the radio feed and agreed with the pilot when she once more asked for permission to land.

The plane stayed in the air for a few more minutes before coming down to land, a female pilot opened the window and waved at them.

"Hello there." She said before jumping out, an older man and young woman started to slowly get out as well, obviously not as used to climbing in and out of planes. "Apologies for the unplanned touchdown, just hit some rotten turbulence."

"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack said offering his hand

"Diane Holmes, pilot" Diane replied as she shook his hand.

"This is Dr Own Harper, Lucy Smith and Gwen Cooper." Jack said pointing to his team.

"This some sort of secret base?" Diane asked after smiling at each of them, "You must show me around one day Captain, you certainly look the part. How many guns does Miss Smith have on her?"

"Two and a stun gun." Lucy replied immediately, "There was a bit of a scuffle earlier." An hour or so before they had turned up at the airport they had been dealing with a bunch of weevils who had escaped from the sewers, it was the only reason why Ianto and Tosh had not come out to the air field with them, they were busy tidying up.

"I'm not completely sure I actually wanted an answer to my question." Diane replied, looking shocked, "Although you are furthering my belief in a secret base."

"Everything alright?" The older man asked as he walked over after helping a younger girl out of the plane.

"How long before we head off again?" The young woman asked, she looked to be a year couple of years younger than Lucy, about 18 or 19. "My uncle is expecting me."  
"When did you leave?" Jack asked

"About half an hour ago." Diane said

"Which date?"

"Today, December the 18th."  
"Which year?" The three strangers looked at each other confused, not sure if Jack was joking or not. "Which year?" Jack pressed, "I need to know."

"1953"

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Who are you people?" Diane asked as the cog door opened and they walked into the hub, Owen walked ahead and pulled on his white lab coat.

"The less you know about us the better, meet the rest of the team."

"Toshiko" Tosh said

"Ianto" Ianto introduced himself with a small smile.

"John Ellis"

"Emma Louise Cowell."  
"Diane Holmes"

"Please, follow me." Owen said with no trace of his normal sarcasm. The three strangers walked through the hub, following Owen to the conference room.  
"At least it wasn't a space ship full of aliens." Gwen said optimistically.

"That might have been better." Jack replied

"It would have put more of a damper on our Christmas though." Lucy pointed out, "Three people we can help is better than aliens we need to fight, I do actually want to reach Christmas day and open some presents. Even though Ianto refused to get a proper Christmas tree and we've only got a small fake one sitting on the sideboard."

"What's wrong with a proper tree?" Jack asked as they started to walk up to the conference room as well.

"Nothing." Lucy replied, "We've had this argument before but he says he doesn't want to have to deal with it and the pine needles getting into the carpet, especially since we'll be busy in work and not actually have time to enjoy it."  
"I've given you the week between Christmas and New Year off, end of the world or alien invasion providing and a couple of days either side. You're just on call at home instead of coming in." Jack pointed out.

"I know and we could put a sheet down underneath the tree to collect the needles but that's apparently beside the point." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "What about you Gwen?" She asked "Got a real tree?" She didn't really care and they all knew it; but she was trying to be nice and they were all aware of that as well.

"We've not got one yet but we will, Rhys and I both grew up with getting proper trees." Gwen replied "It doesn't feel like Christmas without them..."

"Are you talking about Christmas trees?" Ianto asked as they walked into the room.

"Yeah" Lucy replied, "and even Gwen agrees that it's not Christmas without a proper tree. We're actually in agreement about a subject, surely that gives my argument more weight. Gwen and I are on the same side, which means you are in the wrong."

"We've had this argument before, it's just not worth the hassle."

"Can you stop talking about Christmas trees and explain what has happened!" John said loudly and the team were reminded that although this was normal for them, it wasn't for everyone and therefore being able to have a normal conversation while something like this was happening would make it look as though they didn't care.

"Sorry." Jack said sincerely. "I tried to explain things to you in the SUV."

"But how can you travel 50 years in half an hour?" John asked, he clearly hadn't believed them. They could all understand why, it was a difficult thing to ask anyone to believe; every member of Torchwood had struggled with the concept when they first joined the team.

"Your aircraft slipped through a transcendental portal" Jack replied and Lucy rolled her eyes at Jack's insistence in using technical terms when explaining to people, he thought that it made them sound more knowledgeable. Lucy was of the belief that if made them sound like annoying twats who should be punched because they weren't actually explaining anything.

"A what?" Emma asked, and Lucy counted that as a victory for 'speak-in-proper-English'.

"You flew through a doorway in time." She explained, "It was probably the turbulence that you complained about earlier."

"It's some kind of trick, it has to be." John said, not able to believe what had happened. Lucy could understand why he didn't want to believe it, but there was a point where seeing had to be believing and John could see that things were different to what he was used to; the clothes they were all wearing for one thing as well as the technology that had surrounded them while they were driving from the airport.

"Tosh?" Jack said looking at their technician. Tosh coughed uncomfortably and Gwen started putting down photos on the table while the screen showed photos as well.

"Celebrations of the Millennium in your respective home cities. Photographs documenting the development of Cardiff Bay from the '50s to the present day. Blueprints of modern day aeroplanes."

Emma sat down in shock and Lucy could see she was the first one to not only believe what had happened but to realise the implications of it.

"But if all this is true," Diane asked, "then how do we get back?"

"You don't." Jack said simply and seriously, Lucy didn't envy him but her respect continued to grow; Jack was a good man and a good leader, no matter his past life before the Doctor. "According to history, your plane never returned. I'm sorry."

"What's going to happen to us?" Diane asked

"Never mind about us." John said. "What happened to everyone else? Our families"

"We're going to do our best to find out." Lucy promised them automatically, this case hit too close to home, all she could remember was how it felt to learn that she would never see her sister again, that she was stuck here. Jack gave her an odd look but nodded.

"Give us half an hour and we'll find as much as we can. Meanwhile would you mind going with Owen so he can give you a quick medical? We want to get you into the system as quickly as possible."

The three of them looked as though their world had fallen away beneath them and Lucy felt her heart go out to them, she had remembered how they each handled the situation and knew that there really was nothing she could do to help apart from listen when they needed it. Owen left the conference room and walked down to the autopsy/medical area and John guided the two women after him - they were in still in shock but John had automatically taken on the role of the parent and was obviously trying to push his emotions to the side to deal with at a later point.

 

“What do we do with three people who are lost? This time it's not monsters” Jack said as they all sat in the conference room watching Owen set the screen up and their guests reactions to the technology.

“We help them.” Lucy said simply looking back up at Jack and taking her eyes off said lost people. “You helped me, and I was more lost than them, I lost my universe. Let me talk to them.” Jack nodded but the others didn’t seem as sure. Gwen just looked shocked and Lucy suddenly realised that she had 'outed' herself to the Welshwoman but right now was not the time to be worrying about it “I’m not saying Jack gives them a job in Torchwood, but I’m saying we give them what they need to set up a new life and to be happy. We give them an ear that will listen to their worries and their complaints without thinking them stupid. We owe it to them to give them that, if we are in charge of the rift then we are responsible for everything and not just the monsters.”

“Ok” Jack stopped her before she could continue. “We do everything we can to help them. Lucy you need to speak to them, let them know your story.”

“Not a problem.”

“Tosh, you need to make them exist. Put back stories out there, people who lived next door, that kind of thing. Ianto you help her, see if you can lay an actual paper trail as well as an electronic one.”

“No problem”

“Gwen, you work with Lucy in getting them settled in. I know you've got loads of questions you want to ask but now really isn't the time to do it, wait until it's quieter. You two take the two girls and I’ll focus on John. But first we need to find out what happened to the people they loved, I want as much as we can find in the next half hour.”

“No problem.”

And with that they all left the room to get to their jobs.

 

“Hi” Lucy smiled at the time displaced people who all looked confused and scared. “So we’re going to help you in every way we can. And although the others can’t relate to you I can.”

“Are you from another time as well?” Emma asked.

“Another universe.” Lucy replied, “I was just walking around Cardiff in my world and I ended up here, I’m in the pages of a storybook but everything is slightly different. I’ve changed things that I didn’t know I could and I’ve had to watch things happen that I wanted to stop. But I lost my whole world, I lost my mother and my younger sister – Becky she's 9 and means the world to me, but her birthday this year is likely the last one I'll ever see.” She smiled sadly, although she didn’t look at Ianto who was trying to catch her eye. The others all looked at each other surprised by this piece of knowledge, Lucy rarely gave anything out about her home life and they had known her for seven months now and she was telling people she hadn't even known for a couple of hours. “The point is I know what it feels like to lose everything. In this world my parents never met so I don’t exist and neither does Becky. I tried to find my parents, to see if they were better off without us but it didn’t matter because they weren’t really my parents. Just people with their faces and names.”

“But my son might still be alive. And he’s still my son.” John argued and Lucy could see that she wasn't getting through to him, he was determined to be stubborn and try and find links where they no longer existed.

“I know that it's not completely the same, but what I’m saying is I know how important finding any link to home can be and how when you find it you just want to hold on and never let go. You do need to hold on to that, but at some point you need to live in the world you find yourself in and not in the past – literally in your case. Don’t forget them, but remember them fondly. If this had happened to Becky I can promise you I would be telling her to go see the world and do everything she possibly could and not to hold back because of me. The world you’ve found yourself in can be horrible and life is more fast paced and some social etiquettes that you’re used to have gone. But you get moments of beauty. You can get to the other side of the world in a day, all the sights of the world that you have dreamed about are at your finger tips; go find them. And go find them with laughing memories of family. Stand in Australia and remember the way a friend would laugh, or a family member, the way their face would change when they smiled. Times that you thought you would die because you were laughing too hard. We can’t control what brought you here, we only clean up after it. But we can give you lives, we can help you get settled into this world, help you find out where you belong. And then at the end of the day when the world scares you we can be someone you come back to, someone you shout and scream at because you want your family more than anything else in the world and time has ripped you away from then. And after you’ve shouted and screamed and thrown things at walls and destroyed all our paperwork, we’ll smile and help you back up again. Life is for living so we are going to help you go out there and live it, every day at a time. I promise you that.”

She could see her impromptu speech had gotten through to the two girls although she wasn’t sure about John. She only hoped she could change his fate although she knew it was unlikely and that the best she could do was to make his time here a slightly happier one. She could understand the pain he was going through and knew that there was nothing to stop it.

 

Lucy suddenly realised that everyone was staring at her and she tried not to blush.

“Well I’ll help you. Owen will just grumble and get you pissed. So..." She shuffled uncomfortably on the spot, before looking up at Jack pleading for help. Thinking she had been embarrassed enough and that Gwen had finally find out Lucy's secret Jack spoke up and continued for her.

"What she means is that we'll all help in any way we can. Now we've got medical records for you and Owen has updated any information with the results from his medical we're going to get you set up in a hostel for a couple of nights until we can get you a flatshare or something, whatever you want."

"I had my own shop and a house!" John was not impressed, "And now you tell me I'm going into a home of some kind and you'll get me a flatshare."

"What are we supposed to do?" Jack asked calmly, with a sinking feeling as he realised what the answer was going to be.

"Get me back home with my family."

"We can't. You died."

"But we're not dead." Emma said confused, "and if it was some kind of window can't we just go back the other way?"

"It doesn't work like that." Tosh said, "for a start we've only got a rough guess where the window actually was, although I could try to use technology to pinpoint it. But even if we know the exact point in space the rift blip occurred it doesn't mean that it will occur then or that it will send you back to the same time. It's almost completely unknown."  
"We just take care of the shitty aftermath." Owen grumbled, "the actual event is alien to us." Jack gave him a 'look' for his sarcasm but shrugged in agreement.

"We thought maybe you'd like to go shopping for clothes and food? Ianto and Lucy could take you, give you some time to get to know what Cardiff is like now and how the world has changed and also to let you talk to them if you need to. Plus Ianto needs to buy some more coffee, we're running low."  
Ianto raised an eyebrow in disappointment and annoyance at Jack for volunteering him for the job.  
"I think we've got enough left for 5 mugs worth, sir." He replied "Someone will just have to go without."

"Now _that's_ harassment." Jack joked before turning serious, "But if you two could actually take them out."

"Sure." Ianto shrugged, "It's my job to clean up after the rift after all. Lucy?"

"I'm in." Lucy nodded, "If we go to the big Asda they should be able to get everything."

"Tosh, if you can find somewhere for them to stay while they are out shopping, that way Ianto can take them straight there once they are done."

"No problem." Tosh left the conference room and went straight back to her desk, immediately getting on with what had been asked of her.

"Is that all we are now?" John asked angrily, "A job? A mess to clean up after?"

"Not at all." Jack said, still trying to be as calming as possible. "It is simply us trying to do our jobs in making sure that this goes as smoothly as possible."

"What's Asda?" Emma asked

"It's a big chain supermarket." Lucy replied, "It sells clothes and food and bits of everything, that way you'll have more than your suitcase."

"Jack!" Tosh called, "I've got two rooms for them sorted. Managed to get somewhere on first go."  
"Tosh you're a star." Jack replied, "Change of plan, we'll find out the basics of what happened to your family, get you sorted in the hostel and then we'll take you shopping tomorrow; once you've had some sleep and got a bit more used to the idea."

"I'm not sure I'll ever be used to it." John muttered.

"It'll be one hell of an adventure." Diane said with a sigh. Emma looked at Lucy for a bit.

"You come from a different universe, really?"  
"Really really." Lucy replied "and a couple of years in the future, so the technology is roughly the same. It's not quite what you are going through but similar."

"How long did it take you to get used to it?"

"I'm still trying. Most days it's fine, but there are some where it's not and it takes all my energy to just get out of bed, or there are others where all I can do is look at where I am in wonder."

The team split up as they started the basic research on the families of the lost souls that had ended up in their care. Jack had John, Owen obviously had his eyes on Diane and Gwen was determined to look after Emma. Lucy, Tosh and Ianto were stuck doing the research and although it wasn't Lucy's speciality it was still interesting and as it was all a matter of looking at public record she didn't need to use any of Tosh's 'cheat sheets' either.

 

An hour or so later and they were moving the group into the hostel; Tosh had stayed at the hub to start work on forging their identities and Ianto had also stayed to help and to tidy up the day as well as continue with his normal duties.

Lucy and Gwen led Diane and Emma to their room, while Jack took John to his.

"We know that you don't know each other but thought you might want to stay with a familiar face who knows what you are going through." Lucy explained.

"Fine by me." Diane shrugged, Emma seemed to lighten up at the idea of not being completely alone.

Gwen opened the door, "It's a bit basic." She said slightly apologetically  
"Not when you've lived in barracks." Diane replied with a smile as she put her bag on the lower bunk bed allowing Emma to take the normal bed. "I'm going to freshen up, I'll leave you to it."

"I was going to unpack." Emma said, "Which wardrobe do you want?"  
"I don't mind." Diane shrugged, and walked out of the room and down the corridor to the bathroom.

Emma started unpacking the suitcase, it had a couple of dresses, a teddy, a wash bag, and a wrapped present. Lucy couldn't help but remember the bag that had travelled with her; an ipod, loads of DVDs, some posters, t-shirts and a book. Emma may be more out of her time but she was better prepared than Lucy had been.

"Who else is here?" Emma asked

"A couple of young girls." Gwen replied, "Nice dress." She said as Emma found a coat hanger to put it away with.  
"Thank you. I made it myself."

"Where are you from?"

"Bristol."

"What were you going to Dublin for?" Lucy asked pulling herself out of her thoughts and joining in the conversation again.

"Auntie Nora's ill and Uncle Finn can't manage the children. It'll be good practice for when I have children of my own mum says."

Lucy caught Gwen's eye and they both pulled a small face at the idea of 'having' to have children by a certain age, but the equally both silently agreed not to mention it. Emma walked back over to her suitcase and pulled the teddy bear close to her chest, the bell around its neck rang slightly. "She's gone next door so Uncle Finn can telephone." Emma continued "She'll know I'm missing by now."

"Emma, she found out in 1953" Gwen said softly. "Over 50 years have passed, remember?." Lucy winced and decided to soften the blow slightly.

"But apart from that you're right. Relatively speaking they'll know you're missing by now. But you can't live your life like that."

Emma sat down on the bed and both Torchwood agents could see tears in her eyes.

"What will she think happened?" Lucy stayed leaning against the wall but Gwen moved from against the bunk bed to sit next to Emma, "It must have been like one of those murders where they never found the body."

"The seemed to think the plane went down in the sea." Emma started crying and Gwen pulled her into a hug.

Lucy knew it was pathetic but she felt she had to say something.

"It will get better, Emma. I promise. And at least you've got your teddy to hug. Mine's in a different world. I was out shopping and sightseeing when I was taken by the rift. I had pretty much nothing of use on me at all." Emma sobbed a bit more before eventually lifting her head and gave Lucy a small smile.

"You mean I'm lucky?"

"In regards to clothes and things to bring I'm saying you were _luckier."_ Lucy amended, "Nothing about either one of our situations can be called lucky."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy managed to get a taxi back home after leaving the hostel which meant that Gwen was unable to ask questions about what she had accidentally said. It was easy to see that she was annoyed about the situation as well as the fact she hadn't been told. Lucy was also aware that there was only so long before Gwen got over the shock and Emma, John and Diane were able to distract her before she started asking questions that Lucy didn't want to answer.  
  


She let herself into the flat to find Ianto plating up dinner.

"Ianto you're a star."

"I know." He replied

"And perfectly modest too." She grabbed knives, forks and glasses for them and sat down at the table. They ate in silence for a bit, Ianto was giving her sideways looks and she eventually put her fork down and stared back at him. "What?"

"Gwen found out today and this is a bit close to home."

"I know and I know."

"You ok?"  
"I'm fine."

"Really? Because you said you were fine after Lisa, or the cannibals, or when Owen had to...”

"That was then and this is now." She said interrupting him and going back to eating her food but Ianto just gave her a look so she sighed and stopped again. "Ok so it's not ideal and I know she's going to be asking questions and nagging for ages. But it's not like we are best friends and as I'm not changing anything it doesn't really make much of a difference."  
"Except you know her life for the next couple of years."

"I know bits of her life." Lucy corrected, quickly doing some maths. "Including this one I know another 16 Torchwood cases. It's not the same thing."  
"Do her and Rhys stay together?"

"Yeah." Lucy said with a shrug, she knew that technically she shouldn't tell Ianto anything but she was also aware that he wouldn't tell anyone and it was hardly a major plot point.

"So you are aware that even though she's been having an affair with Owen she stays with her boyfriend. You _don't_ think that's important or something she'll want to know about."  
"I don't know Ianto. I just know that she's going to be on my back. But it's not like she thinks. It sucks having future knowledge and not being able to act on it."  
"Well _I_ know that."

"I know you do, and the others think the same thing. Jack drilled it into your heads when I appeared, what it meant and the do's and don'ts. Gwen didn't have that, and you know she's a romantic about these kind of things. Can we just get on with dinner please and drop the topic of Gwen?"  
"Sure."

They ate for a bit longer before Ianto spoke again.

"So you are completely fine with the idea of looking after people stolen by the rift, and getting them used to a world that's not there's."

"Yes!" She said exasperatedly "It's not like I didn't know it was going to happen."

"Just wanted to check" He smirked at her.  
  


(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

They all got into work early the next morning, at least Gwen and Owen did; Tosh, Ianto and Lucy all got in early enough anyway. Although they had a 'situation' it didn't change the fact that it wasn't enough to disrupt their 'normal' work if they wanted to have time off for Christmas.

Ianto and Lucy went straight down to the archives, Ianto to continue sorting through it and Lucy to look up more information for the weapons archive she was still setting up, it was a bigger task than she had originally thought, especially as she has no idea what some of their items did and didn't want to turn out like Adam, hoarding things that might have been weapons but were actually broken or hair dryers. Tosh got back to work making a life for their 'guests', while Owen and Gwen sat at their computers getting on with paperwork and trying to get away with doing the minimum, like they often did when they were bored and had no project on the go.

 

At midday, John, Diane and Emma walked into the tourist office, where Ianto met them and they walked into the hub and then into Jack's office with Gwen and Lucy. After getting coffee, or tea, and checking how they were and how they were coping, Jack passed them over the passports and IDs that Tosh had made; sometimes it helped being a top secret part of the government, they weren't _technically_ forgeries.

"These will be your means of identification for the authorities." Jack explained, "We've set up bank accounts for you, but for now we'll be giving you a daily allowance so that you can practice with the currency and money management."

"David Ward?" John wasn't impressed

"Sally-Anne Hope" Diane read

"Deborah Morrison, and it's spelt how Deborah Kerr spells it." Emma seemed to be the only one happy with her new name.

"Your background stories should incorporate the skills you already have. For instance, John you could have run a corner shop."

"No"

"We can fake references." Lucy said, "It's no trouble, just give us a rough idea of what they should say."

"You can't take away our names. Did your name change when you ended up here?"  
"No" Lucy admitted, "But then I never existed in this world, you did."

"No one's going to notice, it's been nearly 50 years. For God's sake, it's all we've got left. It's my son's name, it's the name above my shop." He slapped the passport back onto the desk and walked out into the main area. Emma and Diane looked uncomfortably at each other and Jack sighed and followed the older man out.

"You're right, I didn't think. You should keep your name." He glanced over at Tosh who had previously been pretending that she wasn't listening to the conversation. Tosh nodded and immediately got to work making the passports again with the real names on.

"While we let Tosh get on with that how about that shopping trip?" Lucy suggested trying to lighten the mood.

"Good idea." Jack agreed, "Ianto!"

"Yes sir." Ianto appeared from the small kitchen.

"You are going shopping."  
"I was hoping you'd forgotten sir."

"No such luck. And it was your girlfriend who reminded me."  
"Lucy is not my girlfriend sir." Ianto said at the same time that Lucy made a sound of annoyance

"You keep saying that and one day we might believe you." Jack laughed "Come on, you know you want to get more coffee."  
"I can't think of anything I would love to do more, sir."

"Brilliant."

They grabbed their coats and Gwen went back to her desk before Lucy remembered something.

"Gwen can you go down to the range and practice for a bit? You're short on your hours from last week and weren't up to your normal standard with those weevils."

Gwen sighed but nodded.

"Not a problem. I'll do it while you're out."

"Brilliant, thanks." Lucy turned to see the rest of the shopping group waiting for her and the confusion on the time traveller's faces. "I'm in charge of weapons." She said with a shrug, "it's up to me to make sure these guys get enough practice so that they are as safe as possible in the field.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"I suggest you use £25 for food and £20 for luxury, like cigarettes or magazines" Ianto said as they walked up to Asda, the journey had mainly been either silence or answering questions about the modern world and what had happened to certain famous people.

"My dad only made £10 a week."

"Inflation." Lucy said with a shrug "Things get more expensive, and people get more money."

As they approached the shop the automatic doors opened stopping the time travellers in their tracks. It was starting to hit home for Ianto and Lucy just how difficult it was going to be for these people, at least for Lucy the technology was pretty much the same. For the three visitors they not only had to get used to losing everyone they knew they had to adapt to the technology as well, and 21st Century Britain relied on a lot of technology. Seeing their reactions to a simple thing, such as an automatic door, meant they had a long way to go before they didn't have to worry about Torchwood's new responsibilities.

"How did it do that?" Diane asked

"It's automatic." Ianto replied "It knows you are there." Lucy discreetly elbowed him to stop him being quite so sarcastic, the others weren't picking up on it but Lucy could hear it in his voice, especially in his explanation of 'automatic'.

"But how?"  
"There are wave bouncing detectors which emit high frequency radio waves," Ianto started explaining "and then look for reflections..."  
"Bananas!" Diane exclaimed interrupting Ianto, she rushed into the shop and the other two followed.

"Of course bananas are far more interesting." He said dryly, and Lucy laughed.

"I enjoyed your science talk."  
"You already know it."  
"Not properly, I've never really thought about it. But the minute she asked I kinda guessed." They followed the three and grabbed baskets for them as well as one for them, Lucy figured she may as well get their shopping done while she was here.

"Look at all this." John said gazing around the shop as Lucy passed him his basket. "We'd just come off rationing in '53."

"Yeah, sorry, we are a consumer society."

"It's bloody fantastic."

"So I'm thinking I'll give the girls their baskets and quickly pick up what we need - chicken, milk, ham, cheese, etc. and check in with you whenever I bump into you and then we can all stand in the Christmas traffic jam together." Lucy said

"You're supposed to be helping me with them." Ianto pointed out with a raised eyebrow, John watched the scene with slight amusement.

"Do you want to come back out later and do our shopping?" Lucy replied staring straight back at him. "Remember that by the time we finish work the queues will be even longer. Unless you are volunteering to be here at 3am tomorrow morning, in which case, be my guest. But we need to get food ASAP, the kitchen is looking bare."

"Fine." Ianto sighed, "But can you take one of the girls with you?"

"Sure. I've got Emma. Have fun. Anything you want for dinner in the next couple of days? I was planning on doing the Christmas shop online but it is more difficult with our jobs. We never know what time we'll be in."

"I'll do it after my night shift next week. And maybe stuff for lasagne and a chicken tikka?"

"Sounds like a plan, 3am shop it is. And I'll make sure to grab everything, must dash. Don't want to lose sight of Emma after all."

Ianto sighed and John smirked at him as Lucy went off, passing a basket to Diane on her way.

 

"Hey Emma." Lucy said as she caught up with the younger woman. "I'm your chaperone around this building we call a _super_ market."  
"Thanks." Emma grinned at her, "I don't really know what to get."  
"Well I've got to get some of the normal dull stuff for us, milk, cheese, ham, pasta, tomato sauce, as well as other stuff, chicken, mince meat, bacon, peas and stuff like that."  
"Sounds like a good place to start." Emma agreed feeling relieved that she had a starting point.

"I thought so, and then when you've got enough for a few meals I vote we visit the sweet aisle."  
"There's a whole isle for sweets?"

"Yup" Lucy grinned, "and another for biscuits and crisps."  
"I definitely want to look there."  
"I thought you would."

The two walked round the shop comfortably, Lucy pointing different things out and Emma getting food that was familiar as well as trying as few things on the taste stall.

 

Just as they were turning into the sweet aisle, Ianto appeared behind them. He put a few extra things in Lucy's basket and glanced in Emma's mentally calculating how much she'd spent, ignoring any potential offers. Lucy was slightly suspicious that Ianto had managed to time his re-appearance so perfectly but decided not to mention it.

"How much food money have I got left?"

"£15.40" Ianto replied.

"It's scary that you can do that." Lucy commented.

"I have a good memory for prices of things."

Emma walked down the aisle throwing sweets into her basket and Ianto followed her making continuous calculations.

"£12.10, you'll ruin your teeth. Lucy put those back, we do not need five boxes of malteasers."

"You sound like my Mum." Emma laughed. "What are malteasers?"  
"Addictive and yummy." Lucy replied, "see Ianto, I'm getting them as part of their continued education about...." she stumbled for the right excuse and Ianto raised his eyebrow at her. "... about how society has evolved and with it so has the food we eat and enjoy." The effect was ruined when she ended it by sticking her tongue out and saying 'HA!'

"And you need five boxes to do that?"  
"Well one for each of them and two for me?"

"So not five for you then, because you are hopelessly addicted to chocolate even though it can make you hyper if you eat too much of it. And for the record _you_ can be downright scary when you have a sugar rush."

"You sound like our next door neighbours." Emma said suddenly, "They had been married for 25 years and he still pretended to get annoyed every time we came back from doing the shopping cause she would buy a small bit of chocolate instead of something sensible."

"We're not together." Lucy and Ianto both said quickly.

"But you live together." Emma was confused.

"We're flat mates." Ianto explained. "We share a house and the communal areas but we each have our own room."

"We live together but we're not 'together together'"

"I think I understand" Emma said slowly as though she was still getting her head around the concept before changing the topic. "So should I get some malteasers then?"

"Definitely"

Ianto tried to take a couple out of Lucy's basket but she quickly moved it so he missed, "Just spotted Diane, she's at the end of the aisle looking at electrics."

 

"They sell films in boxes and you can watch them at home." Diane said when they joined her

"They're called DVDs." Lucy said "Digital something disks." She glanced at Ianto  
"Versatile, Digital Versatile Disks."

"I love going to the pictures." Emma looked through the shelves and spotted a couple she recognised, they were standing at the 'classic Christmas film' stand. Lucy grabbed a couple she hadn't seen before as well as a few she had, Ianto rolled his eyes at her predictability and grabbed a couple more before going to talk to John who was staring at the covers of magazines.

When the pair returned Ianto had a few more DVDs that ended up in Lucy's basket.

"You like films and these DVDs things then?" Diane asked

"With our busy lives, having the time to sit and watch a DVD is bliss, so I make sure the collection continues to grow at almost every possibility - the Queen gives us enough money to spend it on frivolous things like this."  
"The Queen pays you?" Emma asked shocked, "Queen Elizabeth?"  
"Yup, still going strong on the throne, she's got two grandsons as well - William (the eldest) and Harry. And we answer only to the royal family, the idea being that way we are not involved in politics and stuff like that, doesn't always work but she's happy to let us do our own thing as long as we can say why we thought it was the best plan at the time. Anyway, we've got nearly two weeks off work for Christmas." Lucy explained, "I'm not planning on leaving the house most days, instead I'll stay in and watch these and eat chocolate. Enjoy not risking my life."

"Sounds like a nice plan, but you have to go out." Diane said.

"I'll go down to the hub to keep up practice, and we'll be on call to deal with any possible situation, but apart from that." She shrugged. "I'll be a hermit, one with friends. And I could meet up with them every ten years and talk about caves; it's good fun, for a hermit." They all stared at her and Lucy walked over to the queues for the tills, muttering about how 'people never understand my quotes and jokes anymore'.

 

Half an hour later they were almost ready to leave the shop, Emma was the only person left and that was just going through as Diane walked up to them holding a box of cigarettes and looking confused and upset.

"What does that mean?" She asked turning the box so they could see the words 'smoking kills' in big letters.

Lucy immediately busied herself in helping Emma put her food and things into bags, Ianto gave her a small glare before trying to explain to Diane why cigarettes were bad for you and how they could kill you. Diane was not impressed.

They walked out of the shop holding two or three bags each and walked back to Ianto's car and started piling them into the boot.

"Wouldn't mind seeing the Stadium on the way back." John said casually

"We can go past it," Ianto said as he shut the boot, "it's on our way. Lucy you'll have to keep that bag by your feet."  
"No problem. If we're dropping John off at the Stadium to look around, I'll jump out and move into the front."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"What did Lucy mean yesterday? Why will no one explain?" Gwen asked as she followed Jack to his office. Since she had heard Lucy's impassioned speech yesterday; she had been dying to find out what the hell was going on. As Lucy and Ianto had taken John, Diane and Emma out shopping and were due back any second, this seemed the best time to ask.

"It's not my place to say." Jack replied, saying the same thing he'd said every time Gwen asked, only it appeared that this time she wasn't going to let it go.

"That's not good enough Jack, I deserve to know, I thought you trusted me."  
"I do." Jack said harshly, "But this isn't my secret to tell, it's Lucy's and she doesn't trust you."

"You all knew about it, I was the only one who was surprised."  
"We were all working for Torchwood when it happened. I don't understand why you suddenly care so much, you don't know the reasons why Tosh, Owen or Ianto joined. Why does it matter how Lucy did?"  
"Because it's obviously something important. She said she came from a different universe Jack, one where we are all stories. Isn't that the least bit suspicious to you?"  
"No, why?"

"Because that doesn't actually happen in real life."

Jack just stared at her.

"You work for a Top Secret group for the monarchy, our job is to stop aliens from taking over the planet and to keep people safe from a rift in space and time. A couple of weeks ago some kid ate an alien eye, became a ghost and saved your life, and yet you can't believe in the possibility of alternate universes?"

"But..."

"Just get back to work Gwen." Jack ordered, "if you want to talk to anyone about this talk to Lucy. The rest of us will tell you the same thing, we may not have been happy about it but it wasn't our place to say anything."

"Fine." Gwen walked out of his office determined to talk to Lucy, she wasn't happy about having been kept out of the loop - she had been in Torchwood for 4.5 months now and the idea that they were still keeping secrets from her was not something she was happy with.

 

"When were you going to tell me?" Gwen asked as soon as she saw that Lucy had walked back in alone and had seated herself on the sofa with her laptop trying to find out everything she could about the lives of the family members of Diane, John and Emma. They had dropped them off at the hostel before coming back to the hub, promising to check on them later in the day with more information for them about what had happened in the past 50 years, on both their family and about culture as a whole.

"5th May" Lucy said not even looking up from her laptop, "I'm a bit busy right now Gwen, doing my job. Shouldn't you be doing the same?" She asked sarcasm dripping off each word.

" _May_?" Gwen ignored the second comment and focussed on the answer to her question, "I would have been working here for nearly half a year then, you were going to wait that long to tell me?"  
"If I had my way I would have never told you" She said taking a gulp of coffee and scribbling down some more notes before shutting the laptop and walking down to her office downstairs. Gwen followed her still asking questions.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

What they weren't expecting was a distressed call from Emma at dinner time. Owen was out for the evening taking care of Diane; they were aware of the attraction between the doctor and the pilot and although none of them thought it was a good idea they would all stay silent. It was not their place to say anything about each other's personal lives if people didn't want to talk about it, something Lucy had to remind Gwen of fairly often. Talking about life outside of the hub was fine if you started the conversation or volunteered the information at a previous date, being nosey and asking anything beyond - did you have a good weekend off?- was not.

After receiving the phone call Gwen and Lucy both grabbed their coats and headed out of the door together.

"What do you think is wrong?" Gwen asked as got into the driver's seat of her car and Lucy sat in the front passenger.

"I don't know, but she didn't sound happy. Maybe it was just the realisation of everything, she's had an exhausting day."  
"You went _food_ _shopping_." Gwen said in a voice that didn't think it was _that_ exhausting

"We took them into outer-city Cardiff which is still fairly busy compared to what they are used to and Ianto had to explain how the automatic doors worked because they'd never seen anything like them before. They'd also never been in a building that big and it was only your average sized Asda. They only got here yesterday Gwen, it's one hell of a shock." Gwen shrugged at Lucy's response understanding what she was saying and accepting that she was probably right.

"I wouldn't know." She said scathingly, still annoyed that no one had told her the truth behind the story of how Lucy joined Torchwood.

"Oh for god's sake Gwen grow up. It's not fun, I lost everyone I knew. Everyone I ever loved or hated or bumped into in the street on a semi regular basis. And on top of that I'm living in a TV show, I know what's going to happen - the basic plot line of most and a more in depth idea of others. Why do you think I didn't go with you and the team building trip in the Beacons? It wasn't just because someone needed to watch the rift, it was because I was scared of what you were going to find. I was helping Ianto to try and fix Lisa even though I knew that it was going to fail and she would kill the doctor, Jack, the pizza delivery girl - she almost killed Ianto and in the show it was you who ended up on the conversation table. I don't like knowing that, I could tell you what's going to happen next year and it would haunt your dreams because it's fixed. I can't stop it."  
Gwen didn't take her eyes off the road and turned into the hostel car park without saying a word. Lucy tried once more to get through to her, and this time instead of being annoyed she just sounded tired.

"I didn't tell you Gwen, because it doesn't change anything if you know or not and it meant I could pretend to be normal, outside of being a Torchwood Agent." Gwen slammed the car door shut and looked at Lucy over the roof.

"I'm sorry for overreacting." Lucy figured that was the best she was going to get so didn't push for anything more and the pair walked inside, not quite sure what they would find or how they would deal with it.

 

"I don't see why she had to get you two involved." John said as he laid the table

"She called us, she was upset." Gwen replied.

"She was drinking." John said as though it explained everything, Lucy rolled her eyes. It was obvious that due to her age Emma was going to adapt to the world a lot easier than John or Diane, but John seemed blind to the changes around him. No, not blind, he was fully aware that the world had changed he was just being stubborn, digging his heels in and keeping with the old routines and ideas - determined that they were better than anything that anyone else could come up with.

"I had half a glass." Emma said defensively.

"Enough to make a show of yourself. We're not meant to draw attention to ourselves, we're not the same as them. We can't trust anyone"  
"You're both human." Lucy said annoyed it the older man and his unwillingness to change "Just from a different culture with different beliefs. That makes you almost exactly the same as anyone living in any of the big cities. Plenty of different beliefs live together side by side every day. Why shouldn't you trust anyone? Because they don't think the same as you, sounds like the ideas we went to war against in WWII."

"Do not compare me to those abominations." John shouted at Lucy, "I did my time and duty. I am nothing like them."  
"Then let Emma live her life." Lucy pleaded, "Drinking half a glass of alcohol and singing and dancing with friends is nothing. It sounds like something I would do, only I wouldn't need the half glass. She didn't do anything wrong apart from act her age."

Gwen turned to Emma while Lucy was still squaring up to John.

"Will you be ok now Emma?" She asked, John responded before Emma had the chance to say anything.

"Don't worry, I won't let her out of my sight again." Lucy could feel her temper rising and struggled to keep it under control with the knowledge that the man she was so angry with was a product of his time and completely lost in a new world, grabbing hold of anything that he could recognise so he could try and make sense of things.

"I don't like liver." Emma said, anger causing her voice to shake.

"Sit down, young lady and be grateful for what you're given" John snapped

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Emma." Gwen whispered.

"Only my _dad_ gets to talk to me like that." Emma continued, John folded his arms as though she was a small child having a temper tantrum. "I'm never going to see him again am I? Or my mum, or my best friend, or my dog. And I miss them! And I hate this filthy stinking place" She burst into tears and left the room. After a quick, silent exchange with Gwen, Lucy followed her. She didn't trust her temper if she stayed in the same room as John for much longer. Gwen followed a couple of seconds later, a frown on her face.

"Let's go deal with an upset teenager" Lucy said as a way of breaching the silence, Gwen took a deep breath then nodded.

"She can't stay here with him."

"No." Lucy agreed, "someone would get hurt and it's not fair on them. They didn't know each other before this."  
"She could stay on my sofa." Gwen said with a shrug, "It's not perfect but..."

"Ours isn't big enough." Lucy said annoyed, "Won't Rhys mind?"  
"Nah. I'll just tell him its family stuff." Lucy stopped and stared at Gwen, causing the Welsh woman to stop as well and look self-conscious. "What?"  
"That is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Don't tell him that."  
"Why not?"  
"Because it is the easiest thing in the world to check." Lucy looked at her as though she was crazy, to someone like Lucy who kept major secrets from everyone else for the majority of her life this seemed to be obvious and common sense. But to Gwen who had lived a relatively normal life and Torchwood was the first major secret she had ever kept, it hadn't even crossed her mind. "It's Christmas, people are going to call and if Rhys mentions that you're having a nice time in the lead up to Christmas with your cousin, they'll tell him that she doesn't exist."  
"I... I didn't think."

"Tell him, she's related to me, but I'm busy with work. Besides we've not seen each other for years and because I'm so busy she's spent time with you. If you say she was supposed to be staying at with a friend and her boyfriend - they broke up so she was left with nowhere and I don't have enough space. That way you can say you're doing a favour for a colleague and a new friend and he can't find out you're lying."

Gwen stared at her for a couple of seconds before nodding, she didn't like lying to Rhys but she also didn't want him to find out that she had become so capable of lying to him.

 

They knocked on Emma's door and heard her try to get control of her tears before she opened the door to them.

"Pack your bag." Gwen said as she walked into the room. Emma stared at her.

"What?"  
"Pack your bag." Gwen repeated, Emma quickly opened her cupboard door and started pulling things out.

"Why?" She asked curious but glad to be getting out of the hostel.

"Are we or are we not responsible for your health, happiness and general well being until you reach the point where you can live in this world without us (and even then we'll keep the bank account reasonably healthy and still keep an eye on you)?" Lucy asked sarcastically and Emma nodded. "Well then, in our opinion it is not good for your health or happiness to stay here. It won't help you settle into this time if you stay with John due to his mistrust of the modern world and his determination to act as though nothing has changed."  
Emma grinned and then her face fell.

"But where am I going to stay, Toshiko said this was the only place with rooms that she could find."  
"You'll stay with me." Gwen said as she put items into the younger girl's suitcase.

"We're going to say you're my cousin but because I'm busy with work and my flat is too small Gwen agreed to help out. You were staying with your friend but she had a fight with her boyfriend which meant you got kicked out and needed somewhere to stay." Lucy said picking up the books and DVDs that Emma had bought from the shops earlier that day.

"Ok." Emma nodded, not going to question her way out of the hostel. She took one final glance around the room, held her teddy bear tightly and then shut the suitcase. "I'm ready, what about the food I bought earlier?"

"We've got plenty of food in the house for Christmas." Gwen said with a small shrug. "But you can bring it if you want to, I think the main idea behind it was to give you an idea of how much things cost."  
"I would recommend you definitely take the snacks and chocolate with you." Lucy added, "The rest is up to you."  
"I'll take all of it." Emma said after a small pause while she thought about it. "That way I can cook you a nice meal to say thank you."

"You don't need to." Gwen argued.

"I want to." Emma replied and that was the end of that conversation. It was agreed that Lucy should be the one to go into the kitchen and get Emma's food (which they had labelled as hers earlier in the day) and they quickly put everything in the boot of Gwen's car. Gwen dropped Lucy off at the entrance to her flat before continuing to drive back to hers where Emma would be staying for the next week or so.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

When Gwen got into work the next morning Lucy looked up from her space on the sofa, she had been about to go down to the range for some practice before getting on with paperwork and things in her office, trying to get ahead for the Christmas break.

"How is she?"

"She's ok, shocked a bit but ok. Met Rhys... met _all_ of Rhys and had to explain that we lived together, we're _together_ together and yet not married. That confused her, and she'll get over seeing Rhys first thing at some point. I forgot to warn him, so I'm not sure who was more surprised. Thanks for saying she should be your cousin."  
"No problem." Lucy said with a shrug. "Like I said, it just makes things easier for everyone, although it does mean that I might actually have to come to yours for a while... which could be... interesting..."

"You don't need to come in, you could just pick Emma up and go again. Although Rhys seemed to think that we should go out together and she'll have to go to yours for Christmas dinner - seeing as you've adopted her into your family." Gwen said quickly. At the best of times the two women were able to tolerate each other and they both had complete respect for their professional work - even though Gwen was still pissed off that Lucy had kept the truth secret so long. But the idea of having Lucy in her house and suddenly part of her life outside of Torchwood was not something she wanted to happen. Her life existed in two separate parts, there was the normal life and Rhys and then Torchwood and all the madness that was involved in that.

"Probably best to just stick to the open doorway or the car downstairs, and I'll let Ianto know to get a bigger turkey." Lucy agreed, she didn't want to get involved in Gwen's personal life anymore than Gwen wanted her involved, even though Gwen insisted on telling them all about it.

 

The rest of the day passed as normal for the Torchwood team, weevil hunting, shooting in the range, paperwork, keeping up-to-date with their pet projects whilst doing everything Jack added onto their already busy jobs.

Lucy and Gwen told Jack what had happened between John and Emma and that they were struggling with accepting his attitude towards woman and not accepting the new world he found himself in. Jack had been able to understand their problems with the 1950's attitude and beliefs and agreed that they could take a step back with John and he would keep an eye on him. He was surprised when he heard that Gwen had taken Emma back to her flat though.  
"We can't expect Diane and John to take her in, they're complete strangers. Diane didn't even come home last night." Gwen said, defending her decision.

"Uh, I think she was in a B&B." Owen said as he went to sit down at his desk. "I'm going to take her job-hunting later if that's alright." They all looked at Owen, Lucy smirked at him but before she could make any comment, Tosh interrupted them all - something Owen was grateful for.

"Jack... John's son. I think I've found him. If I'm right this could end badly."

"Why?" Jack asked immediately more concerned with this issue than Gwen pushing the line between work and home.

"Because he's in a care home and has dementia."  
"Shit." Jack said looking at the screen, before moving to sit on the sofa and look at the photos. "He's not going to like hearing that. John's witnessing the end of his world, the end of his line. There's not battle to fight, just three lost people who've somehow become our responsibility." He looked at the rest of the team who were all waiting for him to give orders. "Ok; Gwen, Lucy I might not like how you did it but you're right it's not fair on Diane and John or even on Emma to expect them to look out for her. Just be careful - Lucy if it's ok with you, seeing as Rhys thinks she's your cousin we'll put you down as her emergency contact and give her some of your family background. Owen, you take Diane out see what you can find. See if the Cardiff museum has anything on flight or something similar - something that will hold her attention at the same time as letting her catch up on the history she's missed. Tosh, you keep researching as much as possible go as far as cousins but no further. Ianto, if I could have a mug of the liquid gold you call coffee I would be very grateful. I'm going to call John in to discuss this with him and let him know it means."  
They all nodded their understanding and got back to work.

 

Lucy went round to Gwen's after she finished work - later than Gwen as usual, but then she didn't have anyone at home to get back to - so she could talk to Emma, catch up with her and keep up the facade of being family. She was buzzed up quickly, but was surprised to see Rhys talking to Emma in the front room.

"Hi." Lucy said putting her hand out to shake Rhys' "I'm Lucy, thanks for letting Emma stay on your sofa, we've got no room at ours and Ianto and I tend to work late most nights - it didn't feel like it would be fair to her."  
"I'm Rhys, Gwen's boyfriend." Rhys replied shaking her hand warmly. "It's not a problem, although it was a surprise to see her this morning."  
"Sorry." Emma said quietly.

"It's not a problem." Rhys repeated, "So what do you do at work then Lucy? Gwen hardly talks about her special ops job."

"Oh, um, I'm in charge of weapons training and all things that are designed to cause pain to others." Lucy replied, not wanting to lie to him but still having to think about it. As she had no one outside of Torchwood, the ordinary question came as a shock. "Spend most of my time on the range, if I'm not on the field or filling in paperwork."

"Sounds interesting." Rhys said, although he did look surprised. "How much time do you spend with Gwen then?"  
"We're a small department so quite a while? It depends most days on what's happening and if I'm working in my tiny office or in the main area."  
Gwen walked out into the main room and looked panicked at the sight of her boyfriend talking so casually to Lucy.

"Anyway," Gwen said hastily. "I'm sure Lucy is looking forward to spending some time with Emma, she doesn't want us hanging around."  
"I don't know anything about your work colleagues." Rhys said turning round to look at her. "We're just having a conversation, calm down Gwen. We're going out tonight don't get so stressed."

"Where are you going?" Emma asked, curious about what people in this time did for fun and where they went on night's out.

"Just to one of the nightclubs." Rhys said with a shrug. "Nothing major." He looked at Lucy and Emma, "You two should come."  
"Nooo" Lucy said quickly and Gwen backed her up.

"That's not a good idea Rhys."

"Why not? I'd like to get to know a bit more about the people you work with, and I'm sure Emma wouldn't say no to a night out."

"I don't dance or do nightclubs." Lucy tried.  
"What were you going to do tonight then?"  
"Thinking maybe see what's on at the cinema and go for a nice meal." She shrugged.

"You've got to be, what 21, 22?" He asked

"I'm 23."

"Exactly, which means you are fully capable of going to a nightclub. I'm happy to be designated driver, if needed so you girls can get pissed and we'll have a nice night. Gwen can lend Emma some clothes, they're about the same size."  
"I'll just get in the way. You were planning a nice night out with Gwen, you don't want me being the third wheel."  
"Nah, it'll be fun." Rhys ignored all her reasons why she shouldn't go out with them, as well as the look from his girlfriend that was desperately telling him to stop and to shut up.

Lucy sighed and looked over at Gwen who could see that Rhys was not going to change his mind, she didn't look happy about it but she nodded.

"Ok." Lucy said with a sigh, "I'm hardly dressed for a night out but why not - also I don't drink so don't worry about staying sober Rhys. I'll drive."

"Brilliant." Rhys clapped his hands, glad that it was all sorted, "Now, how about you tell me what Gwen's like at work while they go and get changed."

 

Lucy was right, it was originally awkward being in the nightclub with, Emma, Gwen and Rhys. Mainly because of the tension between Gwen and herself and Rhys' determination to ignore it and to get to know his wife's colleague better.

"So have you got any family then Lucy?" He asked as he came back from the bar.

"Nah." Lucy said with a shrug and a smile. "It's just me. Well apart from Emma and the extended family, obviously."  
"You're spending Christmas alone?" He asked, and Lucy and Gwen could both see where this line of questioning was going to lead, spending an evening together was hard enough - spending Christmas day together would be hell.

"Ianto and I have a few vague plans." She said quickly, "Small Christmas dinner for the two of us and I think he's going to see some of his family after."  
"Ianto your boyfriend?" Rhys was interested and Emma finished her orange juice and walked on to the dance floor. Gwen smirked at the question and answered before Lucy could.

"Depends who you ask, they'll both say they are just friends but..."  
"But we _are_ just friends/flatmates." Lucy interrupted before Gwen could say anything. "He was kind enough to offer me his spare room when I joined Torchwood and I haven't got round to moving out yet, it's a system that works for us."  
"You joined three months before me." Gwen pointed out with a laugh, "if you wanted to move out you would have done it by now."  
"Like I said." Lucy shrugged, "It works for us, it's nice to have company and not go home to an empty house, plus I don't have to do all the cooking.

"Whose Ianto then? I'm sure I've heard Gwen say his name before."  
"Ianto's the archivist and general worker, he keeps the place tidy, feeds us coffee makes sure we have the right information, stuff like that."

"Useful person to have around then."  
"Yeah." Gwen and Lucy both agreed, "we would struggle without him."

"How many other people in the team?"  
"Owen - the doctor, Tosh - the technician and Jack - our boss." Lucy shrugged, "Like I said, it's a small team so we live in each other's pockets a lot. And talking of work is boring." She quickly changed the subject. "Tell me about you, how did you two meet?"

They kept the topic of conversation casual, both girls changing the subject when the questions got too close to what they did for a living and what was covered by the Official Secrets Act.

Lucy couldn't help but notice that Emma looked uncomfortable surrounded by modern music and teenagers. Gwen evidently noticed the same thing, as she looked up at Emma and then back at Rhys and Lucy.

"Do you think she's alright? I'm not sure she's ever had a proper boyfriend before."  
"If she has I've not been told." Lucy added, keeping up the pretence that Emma was family

"Gwen, stop fussing. She'll me fine, man."

"I'll go get some more drinks." Lucy said seeing the look the couple gave each other. "Same as before?"  
"Yeah, thanks." Rhys said before turning to kiss his girlfriend, Lucy quickly escaped and gave Emma a smile from across the dance hall. Emma smiled back and then started dancing with one of the young men nearby who had caught her eye.

 

As Lucy put the fresh drinks back on the table, she noticed Emma slipping away with the boy.

"Shit." Gwen looked over and saw the same thing as her.

"Errr... I should." Lucy gestured and Gwen nodded,

"I'll come with you."   
Rhys looked annoyed but followed them as they tried to find where Emma had gone. They found her snogging at one of the booths and Lucy and Gwen both violently pulled him off her.

"Oi hands off." Gwen said

"Get lost." Lucy added and Rhys shoved him further away.

"Get back to your friends, there's a good boy."

"What are you playing at?" Gwen asked Emma, shocked that the teenager had done that.

"Uh, I wasn't going to let him do anything." Lucy looked at Rhys and Gwen.

"I just need a quick word with my cousin. We'll be with you in five minutes."  
"Yeah." Rhys pulled Gwen back, "Come on Gwen, we'll try and find some seats again."  
"Maybe we should just go home in a bit. I've got some paperwork to finish before the holidays and I'm sure Lucy has as well." Rhys looked disappointed but nodded.

"No problem, we'll wait for you two by the car, ok?"  
"Sure, see you there. Thanks." Lucy smiled before sliding into the seat next to Emma as the couple walked away.

  
"You might not have had a choice Emma, things have changed."  
"I was just having a kiss and a cuddle."  
"Well I hate to tell you this and take away your innocence but I think he was after a lot more than that." Emma looked confused and Lucy felt uncomfortable at the idea of giving someone 'The Talk' and not only that someone who was only 4 years younger than her and yet was born over 50 years ago - Time Travel was complicated. 'The Talk' was always uncomfortable and having to add to it, explaining society's values towards relationships only made it worse.

"You mean?"  
"I mean that people are lot more... sexually aware now days. It's a lot more... acceptable to sleep with others before marriage, having a child out of wedlock isn't frowned on and you might find men could... take advantage of your innocence. Gwen will probably have some magazines and examples if you want me to mention it to her." Emma nodded.

"My mum said that no man wants to married soiled goods."  
"Things change. The swinging 60s happened." Lucy shrugged. "As long as it's safe and between two consenting adults, no one cares."  
"So, how many men have you done it with?" Emma obviously felt uncomfortable asking the question and Lucy felt awkward hearing it.

"Wow, err maybe best not to ask that to people until you become close or you're both drunk." Lucy said, feeling awkward by the fact they were still in a club. "But in answer to your question I've only had one serious boyfriend, but even then with my home life and other factors things got complicated."  
"So you haven't..."

"No, no, I have. But only with that one guy and he turned out to be a tosser who wasn't worth it. Listen let's go join Gwen and Rhys. I'll drive you guys back to their flat and you can talk to Gwen about this, she's probably a lot better at it than me and will have the magazines and examples of what I mean when I said people are more sexually aware nowadays."

Emma nodded and the two pushed their way out of the club and back to the car, Gwen and Rhys.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Even though the responsibilities of Torchwood had increased, it didn't change their day to day lives - besides Emma living with Gwen pretending to be Lucy's cousin and Owen falling in love with Diane. Life moved on, weevils still escaped from the sewers, alien artefacts had to be retrieved, they had phone calls with the government and UNIT and anyone who decided to be nosey and try and find out more about the shadowy streets of Cardiff. Ianto managed to get Emma an interview with a fashion house after she had said that she had always wanted to work in one. Lucy was sitting on Gwen's sofa, waiting for Emma to return.

She walked back in looking nervous.

"Well..." Gwen asked as she walked out from behind the counter with a glass of wine.

"This coat I'm wearing is their latest fashion, '50 inspired. They offered me a job on the spot!" Emma squealed, Lucy jumped up to hug her.

"Oh that's brilliant!"  
"Well done." She agreed, "Not going to be difficult for you to come up with 50's designs either, seeing as for you it was only a week or so ago."

"That'll definitely help." Emma agreed.

"Now we need to find you a flat somewhere near here." Gwen said moving back to the counter to pour another glass for Emma.

"The shops in a new branch in London." Emma said, still excited although the smile on Gwen's face froze and fell. "I've always dreamt about working in a London fashion house. They open the day after boxing day. I'll be a shop girl and a trainee buyer and I can house-share. They've given me contact numbers."  
"London's a big city."  
"That's what my mum used to say." Emma joked

"There's no rush."

"There's nothing to keep me here." She turned to look at Lucy, "What do you think, I'm pretending to be your cousin after all..."  
"I think that London is huge." Lucy said slowly working out the best way to phrase it. "And if you go you'll be thrown in the deep end with all the different cultures and rules from around the world, but it's a job and we can help get you set up there if that's what you really want."  
"I'm sure we can find you something in Cardiff, that's what Ianto originally got your interview for after all. You keep looking."

"Or you could go sod the world, I'm going to try on my own and if it fails you have a place to come back to." Lucy offered seeing Emma sag at the way Gwen reacted.   
"Thanks." Emma smiled at her and Lucy smiled back ignoring the glare from Gwen.

"Anyway, I've got to get back to work, Ianto's found some stuff in the archives that I want to look into. So I will see you soon Emma and see you tomorrow Gwen."  
"Yeah bye." Gwen said half heartedly while Emma gave her a hug.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Ianto knocked on the door of Lucy's office.

"You ready to go?"  
"Nearly." she replied not looking up from the screen as she filled in the rough data from her notebook and saved it. "Yeah ok, that'll do for now. Want to get most of the stuff in in the next couple of days before we're finished for the year."  
"We're on call." He pointed out

"Which is as close as Torchwood gets to the offices being shut and us being on holiday. Allow me to dream." Lucy laughed as he pulled a face at her. "By the way I need you in the range every day. Your practice hours are way behind everyone else's. Not that the average is bad you just need more hours is all." Ianto shrugged

"I'm busy doing other things, I don't have the time you field agents have to play in the shooting range."  
"Well tough, cause I'm not letting you out onto the field at all unless those hours increase, Jack'll back me on that."  
"Back you on what?" Jack asked as they walked through the hub.

"Ianto needs to clock up more hours in the range before he can go on the field." Lucy said, Ianto rolled his eyes behind her and Jack smirked.

"Sorry, Lucy's right. That's her area and I'm duty bound to agree with her."

"Fine." Ianto agreed, "it just means you need to tidy up after yourselves tomorrow and I can't make the coffee as often." Jack turned to Lucy with a pantomime look on his face.

"Surely... surely there are ways around the rules..." Lucy laughed at her boss.

"I'll make sure he goes upstairs on coffee breaks don't worry. Now come on, I'd like to get home today and not tomorrow."  
"I'll see you two tomorrow then." Jack said walking back to his office as they walked towards the lift and the tourist office.

 

Ianto slipped behind the desk to grab his keys, and was confused where he couldn't immediately find them. Lucy instantly remembered/realised what had happened to them and what John would currently be doing.

"I can't find the keys. You got yours?" Ianto asked as he rummaged through the paperwork on the desk. Lucy pulled hers out of her pocket.

"Yeah, but you'll worry about it all night if we use mine and leave yours lost. Where did you last leave them?"  
"On the side." Ianto replied distractedly "The same place I always leave them."  
"Well you were the only one on duty up here today." Lucy mused, pretending she was thinking aloud but instead trying to make Ianto realise that only one other person could have taken them. It apparently worked because Ianto's eyes grew in understanding and panic.

"John! He was behind here earlier, he's the only other person who could have them. Can you call him while I continue to see if I can find them?"

"No problem." Lucy pulled her phone out and scrolled through her - short - list of contacts to try and call John. After getting no answer for the third time, Ianto agreed that they probably weren't going to get one and that they needed to tell Jack.

"Hello?" Jack said as he answered the phone, Ianto put it on speaker so they could both talk.

"My car keys have gone." Ianto said with no preamble "John was behind the counter earlier on and I can't get hold of him"

"Shit." Jack said, "I'll check the car park CCTV."  
"All I wanted was my book and bed." Lucy moaned "Sometimes I hate this job."  
"No you don't." Jack replied as he looked on the computer, a few seconds of silence later Jack spoke again. "Your car's not in the car park. Hang on just bringing up the tracking software..."  
"You know if I was anyone else I would complain that you have a tracker attached to my car." Ianto pointed out dryly.

"Gwen would pitch a fit if she knew." Lucy agreed before grinning. "Let me be there when she finds out."

"You are unbelievable" Jack groaned "He's gone home..."

"I'm fantastic." Lucy laughed before turning serious, "What do you mean he's gone home."  
"I mean the car is parked right next to his old house." Jack replied, "I'm going to take the SUV and deal with this."  
"Do you want back-up?" Ianto asked.

"No thanks Ianto." Jack said. "Just go home. I'll call you if I need you and you'll have your car back tomorrow morning when you get into work."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The next morning the atmosphere in Torchwood was quiet and unhappy. Lucy, because she knew what had happened to John the night before and what Diane was going to do soon. Ianto, because he didn't know what John had done and he was worried. Gwen, because Emma had decided that she was going to move to London for the job she had been offered and Tosh simply because she was picking up on the mood of her friends and colleagues.

Owen stormed into the hub and they all exchanged looks before looking at Jack. He was the boss, it was up to him to find out what had happened and to face Owen's temper. He escorted Owen up to his office and for half an hour there was lots of shouting heard until Jack walked out again.

"A week and a half ago we all took on an extra responsibility." He started, "Three strangers who had been lost in time, and we promised to help them in any way we could. For now that responsibility has come to an end. Emma has moved to London for a fresh start and although we'll make sure she has sufficient money in her bank account she's asked that we give her a chance to live her life. That's her choice, she's got our mobile numbers so she may call sometimes but she is no longer one of our main concerns." Jack sighed as he had to impart the bad news. "Last night, John took his own life. He couldn't live in a new world without his family, and earlier today Diane took her plane and flew away - I don't know what will happen to her but she is also no longer our responsibility. Unless she lands in the same time, and she apparently did not think that would happen. Your holidays start in a couple of days but in light of the week we've had you can all go home and start them now. Ianto I'll get your car cleaned and sent back to you within the next few days"  
With that he turned and walked back into his office to deal with Owen. The rest of them all looked at each other not sure what to say or do.

"Wow." Tosh said, she was the first to regain her senses as she had spent the least amount of time with the them. Focussing instead on finding out the information and trying to work out how it had happened.

"Yeah." Lucy agreed "that's err... Poor Owen."

"We've got to tell Emma." Gwen said.

"How?" Lucy asked, "'By the way Emma, I know you're having fun in London. But the two stranger that you turned up with. Well they're both dead. John killed himself and Diane is MIA.' yeah that's going to go well."

"She deserves to know."

"Emma did ask to be left alone."Tosh pointed out "Maybe we should at least give her time to get settled into her new life."

Gwen didn't look fully convinced but she nodded.

"How you feeling Ianto?" Lucy asked, "seeing as John used your car..."  
"I was trying not to think about it." Ianto replied glibly. "Thanks for that."  
"No problem." She smiled at him.

"He used your car?" Tosh asked

"John stole Ianto's car keys yesterday." Lucy said, "We only discovered it when we went to go home. Hence why Jack's promised to clean it."

"Damn." The Japanese woman said and they all nodded in agreement.

"Well I'm going home to Rhys. I don't want to hang around Torchwood right now, have a good Christmas."

They all agreed that it was a good idea to leave the hub and go back home and exchanged Christmas presents (even Gwen and Lucy) before leaving the hub for the early start to their Christmas holidays. Each privately hoping that this was not a prelude of things to come and to set the tone for the holidays themselves.

 


	12. Chapter 12 - Christmas

Lucy was not impressed, it was Christmas Eve so she was wrapping her Christmas presents in her room, listening to carols. The same thing she had done every year for as long as she could remember. What hadn't impressed her was Jack calling her saying she needed to go to work.

"Go away Jack." Lucy said as she answered the phone and put in on speaker so she wouldn't have to stop wrapping Ianto's Christmas presents, the only person she was giving presents too outside of Torchwood was Carys and they were meeting during the week to trade presents. Torchwood was a lonely life sometime and being in a universe that wasn't hers meant she wasn't really looking forward to Christmas this year no matter how much she tried to pretend things were normal. She had still bought and wrapped presents for her sister even though she knew she would never be able to give them to her.

"Lucy have you seen the news?"  
"Nope." She replied with a shrug as she cut the sellotape. "It's Christmas Eve, I make a point to not turn on the TV for anything apart from Doctor Who between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day."

"There's a giant star over London."  
"And we're in Cardiff, so that's fine." She folded the wrapping paper and held in place with her knee as she picked up a piece of pre-cut tape.

"Lucy!" Jack wasn't impressed and Lucy stuck the tape on the present, took the phone off speaker and put it to her ear.

"Jack. Listen this has got nothing to do with us. The day is already saved, providing Donna Noble does not currently work for a Mr Chattergy and she got the job at H.C. Clements, we're fine and don't have to deal with this. Seeing as I checked yesterday that was indeed the case, can you please leave me to enjoy my Christmas Eve?"

"What are you on about?" Jack asked, his annoyance from earlier turning into confusion.

"It's not just Torchwood that I know about." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "I know about the Doctor as well - remember? To me this happened Christmas Day years ago. The Doctor loses Rose at the Battle of Canary Wharf, he burns up a sun to say goodbye cause she ended up in a parallel world and then literally straight after a ginger in a wedding dress appears in the TARDIS - Donna Noble - and an adventure happens. This is that adventure, even though Canary Wharf happened a while ago, for the Doctor it's only been a day or two."

"The Doctor has already saved the day?" Jack asked, wanting to confirm what Lucy had said.

"Well no, not yet but he's going to. It's a longish story that involves the draining of the Thames and Mr Saxon giving permission to the army and presumably UNIT to shoot a Christmas star - which co-incidentally has a Racnoss in it, and the children of the Racnoss also turn out to be the centre of Earth."  
"I'm not sure I want to know" Jack said and Lucy could almost hear his mind working as he tried to make sense of what he had just been told.

"I've got it with me if you want to watch it. We need to keep an eye on Donna anyway, she doesn't travel with the Doctor straight away but she will and she'll need our help when she comes back."

"Ok, well if you are sure..."  
"Jack the Doctor drains the Thames, once that happens you'll know he's saved the day. If it doesn't happen you can shout at me and I'll do everything I can to help solve this incident. But for now can you please piss off so I can get back to Christmas Eve?"

She heard her boss laugh before he hung up, Lucy rolled her eyes, turned the music up and pulled the next present towards her as she got back on with the job in hand.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Although it was Christmas day, they were on call just in case something happened, so Ianto made sure that they still made a full Christmas dinner, he simply made less of it so they could still run if needed at work later. Seeing as the yearly incident happened the day before Lucy was pretty certain that they would be fine and wasn't bothered by the fact that they both had to keep their phones on them at all times. That was simply part of the job anyway.

Ianto passed her a present, it was a large square and she had no idea what it was, before she opened it Ianto spoke.

“I just thought, we’ve spent so much time that week making sure our new visitors had something to remind them of home and you’d been brilliant, telling them about how you’ve had to change, that you needed something to remind you of home as well.” She nodded and ripped the wrapping paper off to gasp in shock and delight.

“How... I mean just how?”

“When you first arrived, we had to check all your stuff you had with you and that included your camera. You had some shots of different places around Cardiff and a few other things, that Jack wouldn’t let us see, but you had photos on there of you and a young girl, that you'd had on their for a couple of years so I realised it had to be important. The photos were still on our system, so I sent this one to those make-your-photo-poster places. And this is what I ended up getting.” He was looking straight at her face trying to work out if he had done the right thing, when she jumped up and hugged him so hard he fell over backwards.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.” She babbled happily before realising what she had done and climbed off him. She went back to looking at the picture trying to hide her blush, but it didn’t work. The photo was herself and Becky on one of the few days she was allowed to take her sister out, the care worker had to come with them of course and it was her who had taken the photo. They had gone to the beach, it was a summers day but windy and Lucy had decided to teach her sister how to fly a kite. In the photo there was Lucy holding Becky in her arms, even though Becky was really too old to carry at the age of seven holding the string to a kite, while their hair played in the wind.

Lucy’s plait was starting to come undone and Becky’s wet blonde hair was being dried by the wind, after she had played in the sea earlier that day. As their heads were at the same height the colours merged together and they looked happy, they looked like they had no problem in the world. It didn’t look like half an hour later, Lucy had handed her sister back to the care worker and got into a different car to drive in a different direction. Lucy was able to lose herself in the memory of that day, to the point she could almost feel the wind and taste the salt in the sea, she could hear Becky’s laughter and smiled at the thought of the young girl. If she ever went back to her universe, although she didn’t think it would ever happen, the first thing she was going to do would be to give Becky the biggest hug possible and never let go.

The universe hopper was so busy staring at the picture that Ianto was able to stare at her without her noticing or caring. It was Christmas and he had just handed her a present, therefore he had every right to be looking at her, he reasoned to himself. But he couldn’t help but notice the sparkle in her eye as she looked at the scene in front of her. The way her blush made her hair look even darker and how she was playing with the ends of her plait as she always did when she was lost in memories and people that were in a different world to her.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy felt awkward getting out of the car and walking towards the tourist office without her usual hoodie, she had tried to sneak one into the car so change into it later but Ianto had noticed and stopped her and put it back on the sofa - folded neatly.

"It looks good on you and your promised Jack that you would stop hiding so much. Getting rid of those baggy hoodies of yours is the first step."

"It's not that baggy." Lucy said crossing her arms, trying not to show how uncomfortable she was in her new leather jacket, in something that actually fit her for once.

"No, it's a medium instead of a large." Ianto replied raising an eyebrow. "You love that leather jacket and have been wearing it every day since Christmas. You said it was one of your best presents."  
"Yeah but that's different and I do love it but..." She said awkwardly trying to explain herself. She did love her leather jacket, but to be outside and around people who knew her without that extra layer of defence and something for her to hide behind was a big deal.

"No one will care." Ianto said as he opened up the tourist office and the entrance to the hub. "The leather jacket suits you and you like it. If it's that much of a problem I can tell the others not to mention it. But you've got to wear it for at least a week, you promised. Besides I even got Tosh to help me pick it out so you've got to let her see you wear it."  
"You've got a good eye for clothes though." Lucy said still feeling self-conscious and now slightly annoyed that Ianto was making her feel guilty. If she didn't wear it Tosh would presume she had chosen wrongly and that she didn't like it, she also knew that Ianto was completely aware of what he was doing and had asked Tosh for help for that specific reason. "Your father was a master tailor wasn't he?"  
"Could tell a man's inside leg measurement from the size of their step. But a bit of extra help is always useful."

They had reached the cog door, Ianto had walked through without a second thought while Lucy had stayed in front of it biting her lip and folding and unfolding her arms. Every part of her was telling her that she should run away and hide, she mentally planned how quickly she could get to the shooting range and out of sight of the others.

"Come inside and don't make a big deal of it. Just pretend that it's all normal and no one else will say anything apart from how good you look." Ianto said, rolling his eyes as he walked over to the kitchen to make the coffees and leaving her alone.

 

Of course the second Lucy managed to work up the courage to step inside, nearly a full three minutes later, Jack walked out of his office and spotted her. Sod's bloody law.

"Morning guys, nice jacket Lucy. Shows off your body and makes you look sexy. You'll have to fight off the men with a stick when we go out into the field, and when they see you with that gun of yours - well I'm not sure if it's safe to let you out of the hub."  
"What are you rambling on about?" Owen asked as he and Tosh strolled in.

"How good Lucy looks in that leather jacket."

Owen gave her a once over and Lucy felt like a slab of meat, something that had not happened to her before as men's eyes tended to skip over the girl in the hoodie a size or two too big and an old pair of jeans.

"Yeah you look good. It suits you, we can actually see the muscle you've gained since joining instead of you hiding it away. You've put a decent amount of weight on too, you're not too skinny anymore either."

"Thanks, um, I think." Lucy replied. "Thanks by the way Tosh, Ianto said you helped him pick it out."  
"Oh Ianto had already spotted it but just wanted me to confirm it would suit you." Tosh said with a smile. "I think he was worried that you wouldn't like it."  
"Well Ianto's an idiot." Lucy said loudly so he could hear. "I'm just going to go shoot for most of the morning. Um... see ya." She grabbed her mug of coffee from the tray Ianto was holding and quickly disappeared. She knew that they all meant well and were only teasing her but hearing them say how good she looked was not helping her stop feeling comfortable. She knew the leather jacket suited her, but her hoodies were like a security blanket and made it easier to slink into the shadows and out of sight.


	13. Chapter 13 - Combat

It was mid-January and after the eventful time they had before Christmas and the 'Christmas Star of death' (Ianto once again showing his skill at naming objects) Torchwood had settled back down into a normal routine. Jack had decided to give the team the night off and following morning off, so Ianto and Lucy were surprised to hear Jack have a go at Gwen for letting her home life slip away from her when they turned up. They were even more surprised that Jack had allowed the pair of them to keep their morning off, he later explained that until they had more information there was nothing the pair of them would be able to do, and as they weren't prone to taking time off anyway he didn't want to pull them in.

 

"What's going on?" Lucy asked as she threw her jacket onto the sofa.

"Some men last night threw a weevil into the back of their van." Gwen replied.

"One," Jack said "since when did other people know about weevils? Two, have they done this before and if so how come we didn't know about it? Three, what do they want with them anyway?"  
"I dunno." Lucy shrugged, "But I have been in Cardiff long enough to know that the locals don't really bat an eyelid at anything and tend to just ignore things. If they don't talk about it it doesn't happen or matter. I'm sure I've heard some of the elder generation muttering about 'bloody Torchwood' before." Ianto had to agree with Lucy, he was a Cardiff boy born and bred.

"Everyone in Cardiff know there is weird shit going on. It's just easier not to talk about it, it's only people who move to the area care." Even Gwen had some words to add.

"The police are aware, they don't like Torchwood and all our 'spooky-doo's' as Andy calls it. But they know to call us in certain situations."

"Ok fine." Jack raised his hands in surrender. "Citizens of Cardiff are aware of the existence or at least the possibility of the existence of weevils. But that doesn't answer my other two questions. Any ideas on them?"  
They all shook their heads.

"It might not be connected but we've noticed a surge of unusual injuries being reported at the A&E unit." Ianto said, grabbing a file from where he had left it, next to the sofa, the night before. Jack grabbed the file from him and started reading through it.

"Chunks taken out of legs and arms, deep wounds to backs and stomachs."  
"Sounds like weevils to me." Lucy said. "Or if not something damn vicious. That we should probably be worried about."

"So we have a wave of weevil attacks to add to our problems. Oh and by the way, that spray we used on them previously? Looks like they're becoming immune to it."

"They're mutating?" Tosh asked interested

"Or evolving." Ianto added

"Or just developing a better immune system, we use it on them fairly often." Lucy pointed out. "I thought Owen would be on top of something like that, he made the current formula of the spray didn't he?"  
"Well if you can get hold of him, we'll make sure it becomes a priority to update it." Jack said as he started to call their wayward doctor, again. "Any sign of the weevil we lost earlier?"  
"I've run a trace on the van's number plate." Tosh started to explain. "It's fake. 2,500 vans of that type registered in the Cardiff area. Widen that to a 40 mile radius and the number doubles."  
"So run a trace on the vehicle..."  
"Route via traffic cameras?" Tosh finished the sentence for Jack and started back towards her desk looking slightly smug. "Processing that now."

 

"Owen's still not answering his phone." Gwen said about half an hour later, Lucy was working upstairs for the day instead of in her small office. This was mainly because they were all aware that something was going on and so she had to be part of the group so she could hear all the information first hand but also because Jack had insisted that she didn't cut herself off from the rest of the team. It had worked; as it stopped her from hiding away from the rest of the group, she was becoming a lot more involved with the team and after 6 months she felt like she belonged in Torchwood and this universe. This also meant she felt a lot more at ease with them, everyone apart from Gwen anyway. But that didn't look like it was going to change any time soon.

"Well, he's been even more erratic than usual since that thing with Diane." Tosh said distractedly, trying to work out what had happened with the weevil last night.

"Since the what?" Gwen asked, causing Tosh and Lucy to look up at her, surely Gwen must have known?

"It's none of my business." Tosh replied walking over to another work station to get another search running.

"What thing?" Gwen asked again, this time Lucy answered.

"You must have realised there was something going on Gwen. Look at how he reacted when she left."

"Oh yeah, of course I knew that." Gwen said trying, and failing, at being casual about it. "I just didn't know they had a 'thing' thing."  
"Honestly for someone who claims to be the human heart of Torchwood you're not brilliant at looking at the emotions of your colleagues." Lucy scoffed. "We all knew there was a 'thing' thing happening before she left. He was offering to take complete responsibility for her introduction to the world, and she only spent one night at the hostel. How many more clues did you need?"  
"Yes thank you Lucy." Gwen snapped. "I just hadn't realised how serious it was."

Lucy scoffed again but decided to not say anything else. Now wasn't the time to be getting into an argument.

"Anything you need me to do Tosh?" She asked, "Might not be able to do the technical stuff, but any basic things..."  
"If you could ask Ianto to get me another coffee, that would be brilliant." Tosh replied. "And food if we have any." She looked slightly embarrassed to be asking.

"No problem." Lucy said with a smile as she shut her laptop and put it down on one of the desk. "I offered, and I'm sure we've got some food. Not sure what though, anything you want in particular?" Tosh shook her head.

"Not really, cold pizza will do if that's all we've got. But something a bit more than biscuits."  
"Sure."

 

Lucy went down to stick her head in the archives, but as she passed the cells noticed the open door and thought she would check in there first. The door was only open if someone was down there for some reason. She found Jack talking to Ianto and decided to stay in the doorway for a while.

"What do you think it's doing?" Ianto asked

"I think it's weeping." Jack replied, after hearing the sound that Janet was making Lucy couldn't help but agree. It sounded like it was in pain, but the sad emotional kind of pain instead of a physical one.

"Why?"

"Owen's been using Janet as his main study." Jack said. "He thinks they have a low level of telepathic ability to share emotion across distance."

"You mean it might be feeling the pain of another weevil?" Ianto asked.

"I hope not." Lucy said walking out of the doorway to join the pair of them standing in front of Janet's cell.

"I agree. Because that would mean that somebody's not only kidnapping weevils, they're causing them pain." Jack's voice stayed quiet but the anger at the idea could clearly be heard. He took a step closer to the cell and Janet continued to wail.

"What can you feel?" Jack whispered, as though Janet would be able to respond and tell him what was going on. She wailed and then turned away from them and sat on the bench at the back. "What do you know?"

They all stared at Janet for a while longer, before Lucy spoke.

"Sorry to break the atmosphere, but I came down on a request from Tosh. I think she's nearly finished tracing the van's route and doesn't want to leave her desk until it's completely done. So could she have another mug of coffee and some form of food that's more substantial than biscuits?"  
Ianto chuckled.

"I think I can just about manage that."

"I'll have one too." Jack said, as they started to walk out of the cells towards the main area. Ianto rolled his eyes.

"I'll make enough for everyone, don't worry."

 

"I've tracked the van's route." Tosh said as Ianto handed her a mug of steaming hot coffee and a couple of sandwiches. She put them both on the desk, smiled in thanks at the Welshman and then continued explanation. "It went straight from the car park to the docks. This was two hours ago." She brought up some CCTV of the white van and two men carrying something into the warehouse while the other jumped out of the driver's seat and followed them in. Before the cameras turned to static.

"What happened?" Jack asked

"The CCTV cameras stopped working?" Lucy said sarcastically, Jack sent her a 'look' before turning back to the screen.

"Do you think it was deliberate?"

"I think these guys really don't like to be watched." Tosh said leaning back in her chair and grabbing the mug of coffee.

"See, and I know it's a character flaw, but that makes me all the more determined to find out what it is they're hiding."  
"I think we all have the same flaw." Lucy commented wryly, "Most police officers would say the same thing. And I'm not sure how many would actually say curiosity is a character flaw."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The next morning, Tosh and Jack drove down to the docks to see if they could find out what had been dumped there the night before by the men in the white van. Lucy, Gwen and Ianto kept an open line on the comms.

"We've got you're backs covered on the CCTV." Lucy said to Jack "Can't follow you into the warehouse, but we'll know if anyone turns up."  
"Thanks." Jack responded, although he had given the order for them to do so, it was a relief to know that the chances of them being trapped and blind-sided was low. It wasn't himself he was worried for, he would come back to life and his body would repair itself, it was Tosh he wanted to make sure was covered - any injury to her would have a lasting impact.  
"Looks like we've missed them." Tosh commented, they had seen footage of the white van driving around the area earlier that morning as well, this area was obviously important.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, "But if you quit a place in a hurry you tend to be forgetful" The pair of them entered the warehouse, Ianto turned the volume on the headsets up so they could be certain not to miss anything. "Do you know what they used these warehouses for during the war?" Jack asked and Tosh replied in the negative. "Storing the bodies of dead GIs. Sometimes you can know too much history."

The three members of Torchwood still in the hub all look at each other and silently wondered how many times Jack had woken up in a warehouse or how many friends had been taken there.

There was a thudding sound over the speakers, and they all jumped.   
"Jack, Tosh, are you ok?" Gwen asked, there was a tense second or so before Jack responded.

"Yeah, we're fine, the door just slammed behind us due to the wind."  
"Well there was no one outside." Lucy confirmed, "glad you're ok..."

"There's nothing here." Tosh said

"So what were they doing here?" Jack asked. "Why come all this way out?" There was another couple of seconds of radio silence which was broken by a 'psst' from Jack.

"What is it?" Tosh asked, Ianto, Lucy and Gwen all stayed silent not wanting to distract their friends and team mates in case something happened.

"Looks human. Male."

"Is he alive?"  
"Hello?" Jack called, "You ok there? We're looking for the people who were here last night. If you saw anything, now's a good time to speak up."  
"Jack, he's bleeding." There was a tense silence and then Tosh spoke again. "Oh, my God."  
"Weevil marks." Jack explained to both Tosh and the rest of his team listening earnestly at the hub.

"You don't think it's still here, do you?"  
"No. We'd hear it. Help me with the body."

The crazy frog tune started to play, and managed to ruin the atmosphere and give them all a sigh of relief.

"Is that his?" Tosh asked

"You don't think I'd choose _that_ ring tone?" Jack said slightly scathingly but still with a teasing tone to his voice. "Besides, the only people who normally call me are on the headset and I doubt it's Owen, apologising for not turning up this morning, or yesterday."

"Don't answer it." Tosh advised and the hub team all made noises of agreement.

"Hello..." Lucy face palmed and shook her head as they heard Jack answer the phone "... who killed this man?... ... ... I have this selective deafness when I'm talking to cowards or murderers... ... ... Oh I understand this better than you. 'Cause I know how this is going to end. We're going to hunt you down. We're going to ensure that you're punished for what happened here. And we're going to make you surrender that creature that you kidnapped. Is that clear enough?... they hung up on me. Ianto, any idea how they knew to call?"  
"They must have rigged up a camera inside the warehouse." Ianto replied immediately. "You did follow them, maybe they're just covering all bases and trying to scare you off. Plus if that's where I was dumping bodies then I would put up a camera to make sure that no one found them."

"It's worrying how easily you talk about dumping bodies. About how easily any of you talk about dumping bodies really." Jack replied. "I'll call you from the mobile and then I need you to trace all calls to and from it for the last 36 hours, fast as you can."  
"No problem sir."

"Tosh and I will bring the dead body in, someone call Owen again and let him know he has a new patient."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Dan Hodges. Date of birth, 21st January 1979." Gwen said reading from what was presumably his driving licence from the dead man's wallet. "Salesman for a web publishing software, looks like he was married with a kid."

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." Owen said picking up Dan's left hand and showing there was a wedding ring on it.

"I can plug his name into our data search." Lucy offered, "see what else we can find, his address for a start..."  
"Good idea." Jack agreed.

"Also, Owen? How does having a wedding ring show that he's got a kid?" Lucy asked sarcastically. Owen ignored her, pressed record on the Dictaphone and started the autopsy and the debrief on it for the rest of the team. This was something that was always useful because it meant the whole team had an idea about what they were dealing with, if they were too busy to watch the autopsy themselves they could simply listen back on the recording while they were getting on with other stuff.

"Right, definitely death by weevil. But he took a right kicking before the throat was punctured. Weevils go for the kill, straight for the jugular. Look at his face. Black eye, bruises to the cheekbones." He pointed at each bit of the body as he talked about it.

"Could he have been tortured?" Tosh asked

"Maybe, but I reckon these wounds were inflicted by humans." Owen replied. "But why smack somebody about and then set a weevil on them? Why not get the weevil to do all the work for you?"  
"Maybe he's a super spy and wouldn't tell them what they wanted to know. So they figured it was better to cut their losses and just kill him, but in a painful way that didn't implicate them." Lucy offered.  
"You watch way too much James Bond." Jack said, staring at Lucy and then looking back at Owen just as Ianto appeared. "Any joy with the phone records?" He asked

"The last incoming number was blocked." Ianto responded, and Lucy could hear how annoyed he was. Ianto didn't like someone beating him and the fact that this was a professional matter and they stopped him being efficient at his job just made it worse. "And the phone's entire call history has been erased."  
"God they move fast." Tosh muttered and Lucy agreed with her.

"If you ask me these guys are using Weevils to carry out the perfect murder." Jack mused. "No fingerprints, no traces of recognisable DNA, a quick guaranteed death. Nothing to connect anyone to the murder."  
"Should be a piece of piss to find the killer then." Owen said, summing up the feelings of the team.

"And how is that any different from what I said?" Lucy asked with mock offence.

"Because _I_ didn't claim he was a super secret spy."

"Well what about this guy?" Gwen asked, "Someone's got to break it to his wife that he's dead."

They all looked at each other and then back at Gwen who was busy looking at the photo of Dan's wife and son in his wallet. Gwen looked up and sighed.

"I'll just go find out where he lives for you." Lucy said quickly, leaving the medbay to go to one of the desks.

 

When Gwen came back from talking to the family without Owen and looking ready to murder someone, none of them decided to comment about the missing medic. Half an hour later the cog door rolled open and Owen walked in.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jack asked

"Walking." He replied

"In your absence, Toshiko has had a great idea."  
"Well, it had to happen sooner or later." Tosh's face fell slightly, they were all used to Owen's barbs and him being sarcastic but that was downright rude.  
"Ignore him Tosh." Gwen said

"Yeah, just ignore me Tosh, I can be such a wanker sometimes apparently."

"The van went from kidnapping the weevil to the warehouse, they must have known it was empty. I checked the CCTV and they didn't check it out first."  
"So either they own it, or they have someone on the inside as a real estate agent." Lucy continued.

"Owen Harper, you're going into properly. Toshiko's in the middle of fixing you a cover story."  
"And I've called the university, we're using their drama students to help with your advert for the website." Lucy smirked.

"Hang on, why me?"  
"Jack and Gwen were in the carpark, I was in the warehouse. You and Lucy are the only two people they haven't seen."  
"Lucy's in charge of weapons why can't she go?"  
"Because these people are using brute force before they use the weevils. No offence to Lucy but I don't want her out there when I know you can handle that. Like you said she deals in weapons and not hand to hand."  
"No offence caused." Lucy said with a shrug, knowing that Jack was telling the truth. "Taking a gun undercover would make me stand out and ruin the whole 'undercover' thing."  
"We have to get under their guard, find out what's going on." Jack continued.

"Yeah, alright." Owen said tiredly, "I could do with being someone else right now." About half a second later he sat up straight. "Hang on, what do you mean university students?"

"You need workers and people on your advert for the website Tosh has been setting up for you. It was students or AmDram and the students will do it for free and for CV bragging rights. You're sitting in on one of their lectures later to pick a few of them."

Owen looked at Jack slightly desperately.

"Please tell me Lucy is joking?"

"It's too late to cancel on them, I've already spoken to the head of the department." Jack said. "Maybe if you'd turned up earlier you could have said something."  
"Great, just fucking great" Owen cursed. "So who am I supposed to be and what do I do that needs an advert?"

"You can keep your name." Jack said walking over to sit on the end of Owen's workstation. "It's not like he'll actually be able to find the real you if he Googles you - Torchwood security takes care of that. And we ran a scan through the government system to see what business proposition is up and coming and would mean that you need a warehouse and have lots of money."  
"So what is it? Apart from pimp."

"Export and import." Jack said with a grin that meant Owen immediately knew that he wasn't going to like the answer to his next question.

"And what exactly am I exporting and importing?"  
There was a brief silence as the team all looked at each other, hoping someone else would say it and then Owen's temper wouldn't explode at them.

"Eels." Tosh said quietly, staring at the main computer screen still working on the website. "Jellied eels."  
"WHAT!"

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

After sorting out the advert and confirming that Owen's undercover had been accepted they all got back to working on their own side projects as there was nothing else they could do at that moment. Jack took Ianto with him to talk to one of the patients in hospital, hoping that they would be able to learn more about what was going on. Gwen had been sent home by Jack to try and not lose her life outside of Torchwood - Jack hadn't been very impressed when he discovered how much she was letting her normal life slip away from her.

When Jack walked back in with Ianto he was visibly fuming as he walked through the hub towards the cells, Lucy and Tosh looked at each other and quickly followed.

"What did he say?" Lucy asked, as the two girls and Ianto had to almost run to keep up with their boss.

"He wouldn't tell us." Ianto replied.

"Said 'everyone' would kill him." Jack added as he pulled the cell door open.

"What did he mean, everyone?" Tosh asked

"That's all he'd say. Couldn't get any more out of him" Ianto replied again as Jack opened the window on the door to Janet's cell

"That only leaves us one option. Ok, Janet, time for a trip out." He unlocked the cell door and they stared at him in shock and horror.

"No." Lucy was the first to regain her voice, "Jack that cannot be the only plan!"

"We've got Owen in undercover, I just want back up that he's going to the right place."  
  


They all argued with him as he put a sack over Janet's head and placed her in the boot of the SUV. It got even worse when he drove straight into the middle of town.

"You want to release a Weevil into the middle of Cardiff!" Tosh exploded

"Not exactly in the middle," Jack replied, "a little to the side. We'll place the tracker in its boiler suit so when they capture it, we'll know exactly where they are."  
"It could kill any number of people before then." Tosh still wasn't impressed and Lucy added to her argument.

"Jack, can I remind you that we spend half our working lives in weevil hunts making sure that this doesn't happen. For the exact reasons that Tosh is bringing up. Plus if you manage to lose Janet, Owen really won't be very impressed."  
"Well when Owen remembers he has a full time job then I'll start caring about how impressed he is with me."

"I'm with Tosh and Lucy." Ianto said. "There's no telling what might happen."  
"We set it lose in the same place where they took the other one. It's deserted this time of night. We'll be with it every step of the way." He stopped the car once they had gone up enough floors in the multi-storey and opened the boot with a press of the button. The tracker in Janet's boiler suit bleeped as it jumped out the back of the SUV and started to run away.

"Tracker working?"  
Tosh looked down at her handhold which was continually receiving live information from said tracker.

"Yeah."  
"Go Janet!"  
"For the record Jack, I'm still not happy with this and this could possibly be one of the worst plans you've ever had" Lucy said wryly as she leant back and rested her head. "But for all its madness I'm with you every step of the way."

"Thanks" Jack said sarcastically as he started the SUV again and drove back through the car park in the same direction the at the weevil just took. "Out of interest do you know anything about this?"

Lucy thought and shrugged.

"I know I probably should. I can tell you that it was written by Mickey."  
"Mickey the Idiot?" Jack laughed and Lucy nodded

"Yup, his counterpart writes a lot of stuff, I've not watched most of it though. In this one we've got... weevils disappearing, Owen going mental after Diane disappears, Owen going into the cage..." Lucy was ticking things off on her hands as she tried to remember what happened in this episode. It was only when she said something that hadn't happened yet she remembered what was going to happen and froze. They all looked at her.  
"Owen goes into a cage?" Tosh asked. "Does his undercover fail? Should we get him out?"

"Errrrr..." Lucy tried to figure out how to answer her friend's questions. "All I'm going to say is he does a really fucking stupid thing but he is grieving for Diane and seeing as the only other person he's loved was Katie..."

Jack nodded in understanding.

"So you're saying we should lighten up on Owen then?"  
"God no, he's still a dick." Lucy laughed " I'm just saying that this time he has a reason for being such a dick. And don't be too harsh on him after the whole cage thing..."

"Well when I know what the whole cage thing is and I know what an appropriate response is, I shall try to not be too harsh. Tosh where's Janet gone?"  
"Second right, 200 metres ahead." Tosh instructed Jack and the conversation deftly moved on from what Lucy had inadvertently spilled. "Shit! Stop the car." Jack hit his foot against the brake pedal hard pulling the car to a halt. "She's taken a left, pedestrian access only." Tosh explained not taking her eyes off her PDA which was tracking the weevil.

"Ianto take the wheel." Jack ordered as he, Lucy and Tosh jumped out and ran down the street that Janet had turned down.

The weevil was straight in front of them as they chased after her, they watched in horror as the side street reached a main road where men jumped out of a white van and started kicking Janet until she stopped struggling, they threw her into the back of the van and then drove away. Jack had been forcibly holding Tosh and Lucy back to stop them going to Janet's rescue.

"The weevil has landed." He said as the van drove out of sight and he released his hold on the two women. "Got a signal?"

"Yeah. " Tosh replied, her voice letting Jack know how unhappy she was with this as a plan. "Just so I know where we stand, we would never deliberately put a human being through that. But weevils are fair game, is that right?"  
"We need to follow them." Jack didn't answer her question and Lucy placed a hand on Tosh's arm to calm her down. There were major problems with this plan, things that she wasn't happy with either but they were trying to do everything to stop the weevils being hurt. When this was over they would hopefully all be safe, or at least a hell of a lot safer. Ianto turned the corner in the SUV and Jack ran over.

"I don't like this either." Lucy said before Tosh had made a move to follow Jack. "I've only just remembered what the hell these guys are doing to the weevils and we need to get them out of there as quickly as possible. All we can do is hope that Janet will one day forgive us and maybe ask Owen to inject tracking devices into every one we capture or meet so that something like this doesn't happen again."  
"They were kicking the shit out of her."

"I know, and I didn't say it was good, just that maybe right now it's a mixture of the best and only plan we've got."  
Tosh still didn't look happy but she nodded and the two women walked over to the SUV and climbed in

"What were you two girls gossiping about?" Jack asked, Tosh just stared at him still annoyed and Lucy agreed that it was better not to answer. "Oh come on, let me join in. I can be one of the girls too."

Lucy looked over at Tosh who was obviously trying not to smile at their bosses antics as he jokingly needled at them.

"We could talk about make-up and boys and what's fashionable currently and boys."

"Anyone would think you need an excuse to talk about boys." Tosh murmured and Jack grinned.

"You're talking to me again."

"Shut up and follow that van." She said looking at the PDA again, "it turned right at the bottom of the road."

They followed the tracker until it stopped moving, Tosh constantly giving instructions as Lucy cleaned her gun (her current favourite - a Glock 17) and made sure it was fully stocked, as well as checking that she had enough weevil spray to subdue Janet and take her back home to safety. The team all jumped out of the SUV.  
"So where is it Tosh?" Jack asked, after glancing around and not seeing any sight of the white van, Janet, or the men who had taken her. As Tosh moved the PDA around it started beeping louder and they ran down a side road between some houses, only to find the tracker and a bit of the fabric it was attached to hanging off the wire fence.

"So what have we got now?" Ianto asked

"Nothing." Jack responded annoyed, "We have no clue where they are or what they're doing?" He walked away and the others all looked at each other.  
"Anyone fancy joining me in the shooting range when we get back to the hub? Taking my anger out on paper targets seems like a really good idea."  
"I might join you." Tosh mused, Ianto and Lucy stared at her. "What?"

"Well it's just..." Ianto seemed to be struggling to find the right words so Lucy stepped up fully aware that she was experiencing the same form of confusion.  
"Tosh the only reason you go on the range is to keep your average up and because you know you won't be allowed out with a gun if you don't. The idea of you joining me in an anger management kind of way, quite frankly is a little bit weird."  
"So I'm not allowed to be angry either?"  
"No just I always figured you got rid of your anger by hacking a poor unsuspecting computer."

"Oi!" Tosh jokingly hit Lucy's arm who jumped backwards and grinned.

"Or on your unsuspecting friends and colleagues. Abuse, I tell you, ABUSE."  
"You are so childish." Tosh said with a laugh. Lucy responded to that claim in the most mature way possible, she stuck out her tongue and ran back to the SUV laughing. Even though they had lost Janet (who had become their 'pet' weevil and was slightly tamer than any others) and had no idea what these guys were using weevils for, Tosh couldn't help but laugh as well as she and Ianto followed Lucy at a more sedate pace. For Torchwood this was, unfortunately, just another day and they had got used to living their lives around such situations.

Jack had obviously calmed down a bit while they were talking and rolled his eyes at the sight of Lucy laughing as she jumped into the car It was good to see that she wasn't hiding from the team like she had been a few months ago when he had planned the team building trip into the Beacons. He couldn't help but be glad that the rift had dropped the strange girl onto their doorstep and into their lives, it appeared like it was good for her as well as being good for the team. She had really come out of her shell and although she still never talked about her past beyond the fact that she was a geek, she seemed happier with her life; even if part of her day to day life involved monsters - both human and alien. He noticed she was a lot healthier as well.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Jack," Gwen's voice suddenly appeared over the headset, surprising all of them out of their annoyed silence from having lost Janet. "Can you hear me?"  
"What the hell are you doing there?" Jack asked. "I told you to go home."

"There's a text message that's just come through on Dan Hodges' phone." She replied, dodging the answer to Jack's question and making them all aware that something had happened in her home life that she didn't want them to know. And as Gwen told them pretty much everything about her life outside of Torchwood which was something that annoyed everyone apart from Jack, mostly because it reminded them that they were alone and had no life outside of Torchwood themselves, it must be something bad. "Charlie Foxtrot One Zero, Six Bravo Yankee."  
They looked at Tosh who immediately started typing what they all recognised as a Cardiff postcode into her PDA, trying to find anything of interest that might explain why it was sent to a victim.

"Seems to be a postcode for a building. It's gonna have a Lynch Frost sign outside." Gwen continued.  
"Let's go." Lucy said turning towards Jack.

"Well what is it?"

"I've got the location."  
"Gwen, we'll pick you up on the way." He hung up on the headset and turned to Lucy, "Well?"  
"First rule about fight club..."

"No one talks about fight club" Ianto finished. "So people get an alert by text message and they head to a property."

"A property Mark Lynch knows is empty." Tosh continued

"So the question is what happens at this fight club when they get there?" Jack asked as drove, Tosh directing him to where they needed to go. "And how are the weevils involved?"

 

Five minutes later they ended up in an old abandoned derelict block of Victorian houses. A sign outside said that Lynch Frost where making them into 'ideal home apartments', but there were no signs of builders or any work being done on it.

They jumped out of the SUV, Jack leading the group as he kicked the door down, guns poised ready to use at any moments but there was no one there. They split into two groups, Lucy, Jack and Gwen stayed on the bottom floor whilst Ianto and Tosh ran up the stairs. Both groups followed the sound of cheering to a large hall, where they found Owen standing inside a cage with a weevil and the sound coming from cheering spectators on the upper floor watching with interest.

Lucy and Jack both fired into the air to get everyone's attention, this muted the spectators but caused the weevil to jump towards Owen.

"STOP!" Jack called as Gwen raced towards the cage desperate to pull her friend and colleague out

"Owen!" She shouted as the weevil threw Owen to the floor. Jack positioned himself to shoot the weevil and Lucy grabbed Lynch's shirt.

"If anything happens to Owen I am holding you personally responsible." She pulled the gun out of his jeans, with a mocking smile. "Awww, how cute. However if you were actually ever going to use that you would have pulled it out the second we ran in. You're not a man, you're just a child playing dress up." He struggled against her but she just held her gun against his shoulder. "See I actually _will_ use this, it won't kill you but it will damn well hurt a lot."

Owen was screaming in the cell and Jack shot the weevil, which caused it to jump off Owen and cower at the side. Gwen ran in and pulled Owen out, trying to be as careful of his wounds as possible. Lucy looked up to see that Tosh and Ianto were shoving the crowd down the corridor as Mark Lynch stared at the destruction of his fight club.

"Who the hell are you people?"  
"We're Torchwood. And you just got one of our best people badly hurt and were using weevils for sport. There's pretty much nothing you can say to make me like you or to make anything better - so I'd suggest you shut the hell up." Lucy snapped at him "Gwen, how's Owen? Do I get to shoot this bastard?"  
"He's going to be ok." Owen pulled away from Gwen as she replied.  
"Damn. Someone get a stretcher," She ordered one of the few men who were near the cage. Lucy guessed that they were in charge of letting people in and out and trying to keep the weevil down. "You've got to have a first aid kit and more nearby, so run and get it." The bald man ran into a side room and came out with a stretcher that Jack and Gwen moved Owen onto. "You did this too him." She said to Lynch.

"He did it to himself." Lynch replied in shock as Lucy let go of him and went over to Owen "He had no fear."  
  


Jack walked into the centre of the room and called up to the spectators, that Tosh and Ianto still hasn't completely pushed away.

"It's over now. These creatures are to be left alone. Go back to your lives."

"Jack." Tosh said as they all heard the sound of the cage opening and turned to see Lynch locking himself inside with a hurt and enraged weevil. A weevil who was smart enough to recognise the person who had caused him so much pain.  
"What are you doing?" Jack asked, raising his gun and keeping it poised but not sure who to point it at - the weevil or Lynch.

"It's over" The estate agent breathed. There was a moment of silence as Jack kept his gun raised before slowly lowering it, the weevil growled and launched itself at the man who had inflicted this on it and Lynch screamed.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

They all looked up as Jack walked back into the hub, while he had been visiting Owen in hospital the team had pretended to get work done.

"How is he?" Gwen asked, they were all going to ask but she just happened to speak first.

"He's coming back to work tomorrow." Their boss replied sternly, no one dared to ask any more questions. That tone of voice meant that Jack was not going to answer any more questions and that he expected his orders to be listened too. "Lucy, how's Janet and our new guest?"  
"Janet's fine, we're lucky they didn't use her and the new one is stalking his cell." She replied. "Jack, I know that I can't tell you in advance... but..."  
"Forget it."

Lucy paused but felt she had to continue, it was something she had to say and the rest of the team had to hear. She would apologise to Owen personally at a later date as well.

"I just wanted to say I was sorry. I honestly had forgotten this episode... if I'd remembered..."  
"You wouldn't have been able to do anything. _Forget_ it." Jack replied walking over to his office and slammed the door shut.

Lucy looked around at the others hoping one of them would say something to make her feel better even though she knew that there was nothing that they could say that would help. She wouldn't have been able to do anything, but forgetting that Owen would be in so much danger if he went undercover was not acceptable. None of them were able to look her in the eye - Tosh turned towards her computer screen and started typing, Gwen grabbed the closest piece of paper and pulled it towards her and pretended to read it and Ianto just grabbed the empty coffee mugs and walked away. Lucy lowered her head in shame and went down to her office and the shooting range, mumbling apologies at each of them as she passed them.

Today had started out as a good day, with her as part of the team as she joked with them and now she was on the outside looking in again. But she had changed, last time something like this had happened she had made a conscious decision to stay on the outside and try and separate herself even more from the rest of them. This time she was to determined to earn their forgiveness.

 


	14. Chapter 14 - They Keep Killing Suzie

"What do you thinks happened?" Owen asked as they neared the address for a crime scene that they had been called out to.

"I have no idea" Jack replied "She refused to say anything just that it was one of ours."

"Yeah, but what kind of alien attacks happen in suburban Cardiff?" The medic asked. "I mean often they either like the city centre or the middle of fucking nowhere."  
"Well we're here." Jack stopped the SUV and they all jumped out. "You can ask her yourself. Usual formation."

 

"At last." The detective said as someone lifted the 'crime scene' tape for them. "You must be Torchwood, my team bitch about you all the time."  
"And you are?"

"Detective Swanson"  
"I'm Captain Jack Harkness" Jack said shaking her hand.  
"So I've heard. Tell me something are you always this dressy for a murder investigation?"

"What would you rather me naked?" Lucy pulled a face at Tosh who turned away so as not to start giggling.

"God help me, the stories are true."

"So who's the victim?" Gwen asked before Jack could say something even more inappropriate.

"That's victims, plural." Swanson corrected her. "Yesterday a man was murdered at 96 Oakham Street. Alex Arwyn, 28, single, estate agent. Here we go." She pulled out a photo from the file she was holding and showed it to them. "That's from the scene of the crime." Jack looked at it with Gwen and then passed it down to Tosh, Owen and Lucy. It wasn't a pretty sight but there was nothing that stood out as having alien involvement. "Today, in here, we have two more. Mark and Sara Briscoe, both 33, married. He's a surveyor. She works in education."  
"What about the smears of blood? Is that writing?" Jack asked.

"Work in progress. Come inside and see the finished thing." She nodded at the house and walked into it, the team following her.

"You know I don't think she likes you Captain." Lucy said with a smirk, "It's almost like you've got a bad reputation."  
"Hey I have a great reputation I'll have you know."  
"Oh yeah, because the rumours she heard would suggest differently."

"Just because you people feel the need to tie yourself down..." Jack's laughter faded as they saw what was written on the wall. Written in the blood of the dead victims laying underneath was the word 'Torchwood'.

"Looks like somebody wants your attention." Swanson said angrily and Lucy could understand why she wasn't happy and it wasn't just because of the rumours and Jack's behaviour. What had happened here was because of Torchwood, they had led to the deaths of these people, and the worst thing was she knew what was going to happen - which meant there was nothing she could do about it, this wasn't going to be pretty.

"They've got it." Jack said, being serious for the first time since they had jumped in the SUV and had been discussing each nations hopes for the Six Nations and laughing at Jack for living in Cardiff for so long and still not properly understanding the rules of rugby. Jack had responded by saying he was more interested in the players than the game but he would definitely care more if he got a private show later.

 

"We found a few of the killer's hairs from the first murder." Swanson said once they had all got over the shock. "Lab results should be in soon."  
"Good we'll need that. Now if you could just clear the room. Some of this equipment is strictly need-to-know."  
"No offence to you and your men detective." Lucy said quickly, seeing Swanson's hackles rise at the idea of being kicked out of her crime scene. "It's simply that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell it to anyone else."

"I can understand that I suppose. But, well... it was only a matter of time."  
"What was?"

"Torchwood walks all over this city like you own it. Now these people are paying the price ordinary people ripped apart with your name written in their own blood. From where I'm standing you did this, Captain Jack Harkness. You and the rest of the Torchwood team."  
"We're only doing everything we can to keep the city safe. Many people would say the same about the police force, locking up innocent people, getting civilians killed, it's all over the internet and the papers..." Lucy replied her voice was quiet, the kind of quiet that warned you to not say anything stupid because it would not be good for your continual health.  
"To the best of my knowledge we've not found a dead body with the word 'police' written above them. And the police are accountable to the law, you just do what the hell you want without fear of consequences, well these people are the consequence." With that the detective left the room and Owen got up to shut the door behind her.

"She's not right Jack. I can't tell you why but I know this and she's not right. There was damn nothing that you could do!" Lucy wanted to kick something but was aware that if she disturbed the crime scene it would cause even more hate from Swanson.

"Ok, I trust you."  
"Well if it's someone we pissed off, that narrows it down to, oh, four or five million?" Owen said  
"And that's just the humans. Tosh how are we doing?" The technician had gone back to the SUV to use their computer system and had been running the names through to see if they had previously encountered them and if there was any link to Torchwood.

"There's no record of Mr and Mrs Briscoe on our database, nor yesterday's victim and no link between him and the Briscoes. No connection between any of them"  
"So these people are completely random?" Gwen asked horrified at the idea that they might be the motive behind three entirely random deaths.

"Well there's nothing that I can see straight away. Lucy?" Lucy sighed and quickly weighed up what she could and couldn't say.

"It's not random and there is a link. Please don't ask me for anything else."  
"That's plenty." Jack said, "Now that Gwen knows and it's all out in the open I'll come up with some new rules about how we deal with your 'situation' in these cases and make sure that everyone knows it. You've helped but not actually told us anything so don't worry. Now let's get all the information we need and then get out of here." They finished the rest of their work in silence only speaking when asking someone to pass them something or to say they were done

 

"Jack, they've got the results on the killers hair." Tosh told them, breaking the silence as they packed up.  
"We're leaving now anyway." Jack replied. They walked out the front door and back towards the SUV. Detective Swanson was standing next to a police car holding a file; they walked over to her presuming it was the DNA results that Tosh had told them about.

"Initial findings say Caucasian male, early forties, smoker, drinks tequila. Doesn't match any DNA profiles. Only thing of interest is a compound we've never seen before. Recognise it?"  
Owen was reading the file over her shoulder and grabbed it off her to be sure of what he was seeing.

"Uh-oh, we're in trouble."  
"What is it?" Gwen asked

"Compound B67." Owen replied, Lucy and Jack both immediately understood what the medic was telling them.

"You're kidding." Jack said and Gwen looked between them.

"Retcon. He's got Retcon in his blood."

"Ahh shitting hell." Lucy said and they all looked at her, including Swanson. "Oh come on, I'm just saying what we're all thinking, even you detective and you don't even know _why_ we're in trouble"

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"B67, a.k.a Retcon," Owen explained back at the hub "a.k.a. the magic ingredient of the amnesia pill"

"And this belongs to us. Whoever this killer is it's somebody we gave the amnesia pill to." Gwen said thinking aloud as Ianto walked in after finishing feeding Myfwany.

"Is he remembering being a serial killer or is he becoming a serial killer because of the Retcon?" Lucy asked. "Are we the cause or the effect?"  
"Wait a minute. I've taken Retcon." Gwen said suddenly worried at the idea of the drug turning people into murderers.

"Then better stay away from sharp objects." Jack replied with a small smile. "Ianto, how many people have we given amnesia pills to?"  
"Two thousand and eight." He said after a small pause while he thought about it.

"Two thousand and seven." Owen corrected. "Lucy didn't actually drug Carys and they are still in contact."  
"What?" Tosh asked as everyone turned to look at Lucy apart from Jack. Lucy just shrugged.  
"Forcing the memories deep into her subconscious wasn't going to help her. I wanted to help Carys and so I did. She's doing a fuck lot better, the nightmares stopped a few months ago and she's decided to use that experience to help others as a councillor - she's applied to uni and everything. Listen this really isn't the issue right now, in fact if anything it's a good thing because it means we've got one less potential bomb out there waiting to explode."

"What if they all become psychotic?" Owen asked, a small amount of excitement mixed in with his sarcasm.

"Do you have to sound so happy?" Tosh asked him

"Yeah, I'm just saying. Mean Streets."

"Cardiff becoming the new setting for 28 days later." Lucy said wryly, "Psychotic zombies roaming the streets the only link between all of them being that they having some missing days in their memories. Could almost make a good film."  
"Tosh narrow the list from Ianto down to fit Swanson's profile, Lucy you can help her, start checking them out as fast as you can. Gwen, Owen there's a link between the victims. Find the link, find the killer."  
"How do we know there's a link?" Ianto asked

"Lucy told us." Tosh said not bothering to glance up from her PDA as she searched for the list of people they had given Retcon to, Ianto nodded in understanding.  
"Right, get to work." Jack ordered and they all got up from their seats to do so apart from Gwen.

"Jack if there is a link why don't we just ask the victims ourselves?" She asked causing them to stop in their tracks and look back at her.

"Not the right time for a séance" Jack replied

"The first time I met Torchwood, you had that glove."  
"No way." Jack laughed.

"Not after what it did to Suzie." Owen agreed.

"It brings people back to life." She continued to argue. "Just for two minutes we could question the murder victims."

"That's exactly what she said." Owen spat. "She was one of us, we trusted her, and now she's dead, 'cause of that thing."

"The glove stays in the safe, where it belongs."

"These murders are happening because of Torchwood." Gwen said standing up and starting to get angry that no one was taking her idea seriously. "So _Torchwood_ has got to do something."  
"And we are." Lucy pointed out. "We're using our data banks to cut down the list of possible suspects, something no one else could possibly do. We'll get there it just won't be as quick"  
"That's not good enough." Gwen snapped. "How many more people have got to die before we use everything at our disposal to catch them?"

"Fine." Jack said, unhappily. "I'll get it out of the safe."

 

They stood in Jack's office and watched as he typed in the relevant password and pulled out a box with the glove inside.  
"It fell through the rift about 40 years ago." He said. "Lay at the bottom of the bay till we dredged it up." Jack was starting to undo the extra bindings on it. "I always figure this wasn't just lost. Whoever made it, wanted rid of it." He lifted the metal glove out and they all stared at it, remembering what had happened the last they had used it, the friend they had lost because of it.

"You know we never gave it a cool name." Owen's voice was almost mournful, almost.

"I thought we called it the Resurrection Gauntlet." Tosh said

" _Cool_ name"

"What about the Risen Mitten?" Ianto said, the words rolling off his tongue sounding even better with his strong welsh accent.

"The Welsh accent is beautiful you know that?" Lucy said, not really thinking. For the third time that day everyone looked at her in shock and amusement. "Oh come on!" She said defensively. "Risen Mitten, sounds nowhere near as gorgeous and sexy in my Southern accent, not that... I didn't mean." She blushed and started playing with her hair. "I just meant it sounds good in Ianto's accent, that's all, it would sound just as nice if any other Welshmen said it."

"Well you're in the right country to hear the Welsh accent." Jack joked.

"Yeah, watch out Tea-boy, if you actually speak any Welsh she might jump your bones."  
"Oh piss off Owen!"

 

They all stood in the medbay around the dead body of one of the victims apart from Tosh who stayed at her workstation so she could monitor everything  
"Jack are you ok?" Gwen asked, but the Captain didn't reply he just threw Ianto the stopwatch and picked up the glove.

"Don't forget the maximum resurrection time was two minutes. That's only because Suzie had practice, the most we're likely to get is 30seconds, okay? Lucy you're our resident ghost whisperer still, so I want you ready to calm them down if needed. Tosh are you ready?"

"Ready." She replied "and recording. This man was victim number one, name - Alex Arwyn."

Jack stretched and put his gloved hand on Alex's head, there was the a buzzing sound and Jack shut his eyes, trying to find and pull out the dead consciousness.

"Come on Alex. Come back."  
"How does it work?" Gwen asked

"You just sort of feel like reaching into the dark, finding the dead." He said straining. "I can't... I... I don't... Damn!" He pulled the glove away and his hand out of it as he got an electrical shock. "Nothing. Sorry, never was very good with this thing." He offered it to the medic. "Owen?"  
"No, I tried last time. Everyone apart from Lucy had a go, it only responded to Suzie."  
"I was cleared on medical grounds." Lucy said quickly. "Coming from a different universe and having a different genetic make-up meant Owen didn't want to risk it."  
"I still don't." Owen agreed, "We have no idea what it could do to you making that form of contact or mental link."

"Well, I never had a go." Gwen pointed out, Jack looked around them and gave a small nod as he passed the metal glove over and Gwen pulled it on, moving so she was at the head of the table standing behind the victim, the same position Suzie always took so her victims could never see her face. "It's cold" She hissed

"It warms up" Jack promised. "The glove relies on some sort of empathy, maybe compassion and... just be yourself."  
"The human heart of Torchwood." Lucy muttered

"Not now" Jack said and Lucy was apologetic.

"Sorry." She said looking up at Gwen, "meant to only say that in my head."  
"So it's ok to mock me as long as you don't say it out loud?!" Lucy only shrugged in response and Gwen put her gloved hand on Alex's head, there was the buzz of electricity and Gwen threw her head back in shock. Ianto pressed the button on the clock. Alex was alive and his body jolted forward as he took his first breath.

"Somebody help me!" He said as Jack held him down "Oh god, help me, help me!"  
"Alex I need you to listen to me."   
"Somebody help! Help me!"

"Lucy!"  
"I'm on it, Alex we need you to calm down, we're going to help you but you need to calm down."  
"HELP ME!"  
"We are. You were attacked Alex, do you know who it was? Any idea who attacked you."  
"I need a hospital."  
"We'll get you to safety I promise but we need to know who hurt you so we can get them too, we don't want them to have a head start."

"Who are you?"  
"Lucy."  
"Where am I?"  
"Fifteen seconds." Owen called over.  
"You're safe enough for now." Lucy said quickly, trying to speed this conversation up so she could get an answer. "We just need to know if you knew who they were, yes or no. Quickly!"

"I want my mum." Alex said the seriousness of the situation hitting home.

"Yes or no Alex please." She begged

"Yes. Please let me see my -" He choked on the last word as the glove stopped working, the heart monitor flat-lined and he died again.

"He's gone." Owen said

"Let me keep trying." Gwen said  
"He's dead."   
"But I can bring him back."  
"The glove only works once." Jack told Gwen trying to keep her calm.

"But I can do it. Just let me try!"

"Gwen!" Jack snapped, "look at me. He's gone." She pulled her hand away with a surge of electricity.

"Amazing. She's a natural. Twenty four seconds." Ianto said looking up from the stopwatch  
"Give Ianto a stopwatch and he's happy." Owen muttered

"It's the button on the top." Ianto replied dryly.

"You mean I didn't need to get you that new coffee maker for your birthday along with the expensive coffee, I could have just found a stopwatch?"

"You bought that for yourself just as much as me." Ianto pointed as he returned the watch to his pocket.

"It is not my fault that you have made me addicted to your ambrosia, I hardly ever drank the stuff before I landed here."

"Gwen?" Jack asked stopping the conversation between Lucy, Ianto and Owen, "What do you want to do? Are you ok to continue?"  
"Yeah." Gwen nodded taking a deep breath. "Yeah I think I am."

"Right, Ianto and I will get the next victim, Owen keep her calm and relaxed, Lucy go get her a drink."  
"I don't need..."  
"This thing uses your energy as its focus, you need a drink in fact Lucy get whatever biscuits we've currently got as well and we go again in 5 minutes."

 

"Recording, victim number two, Mark Briscoe."

"Oh, God, I can feel him. It's like a rope from my heart to the glove." Gwen said as Lucy positioned herself ready to calm the man down straight away. "It's so warm" There was a surge of electricity and Mark Briscoe took a deep breath and stared at them

"Hi," Lucy said keeping her voice quiet and calm with a small smile. "Look at me Mr Briscoe, just at me."

"Where am I?"

"You're were hurt, someone came into your house and attacked you, we don't have long. We just need to know who it was, anything you can remember will help."

"Is my wife alright?"  
"We're looking after her in the next room and will speak to her after we've finished with you, don't worry. But we need to know Mr Briscoe, who was it?"  
"It was that man. He belonged to Pilgrim. He went to Pilgrim."

"Which man? What's Pilgrim?"

"Oh my God. He had a knife."  
"You're safe Mark, stay with me, don't panic. What was his name?"

"Thirty five seconds." Ianto said but Lucy ignored him, keeping herself focussed on Mark and stopping him from panicking at the same time as trying to find out the killers name and get that all important vital link to their former colleague.

"Max"  
"Well done, Mark, that's really good. Now can you tell us anything else about Max, his surname, what he looked like. Anything that's going to help us track him down."  
"I never knew his surname. My wife..."  
"Your wife is fine Mark. She's sleeping in the next room. I need to know about Max so we can find him and make sure he doesn't go after anyone else."  
"Trying Pilgrim and Max." Tosh called over to make sure that they knew and it was picked up in the recording.

"He's going." Owen warned them, and Lucy felt the pressure on her grow she had to get more information from the man, specifically something that would lead them to their old colleague.  
"Anything else you can tell us about him, anyone you know who can help us find him."  
"There was a woman, she knew him better. They were... always talking."  
"Brilliant, we'll find her. What was her name Mark?"

"Where's my wife, why isn't she here?"  
"Her name, Mark and then you can go to your wife I promise. Just tell me her name."

"Suzie."

Everyone apart from Lucy was in shock and the connection between Gwen and Mark Briscoe that was already failing, died.

"One minute, five seconds." Ianto informed them.

"Jack, did I hear that right?" Tosh called over.

"Could be anyone." Owen said shaking his head. "Must be lots of women called Suzie."  
"Not connected to this case." Jack pointed out. "We've been talking to the wrong corpse. Tosh find out everything you can about this Pilgrim group that they all belonged too. Meeting in the board room in an hour. Until then everyone else can... just do your own thing. Gwen you need to eat something." With that Jack left the medbay and walked up to his office.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Tosh was the last to walk into the board room, she had a file under her arm and placed some papers on the table. The meeting was a couple of hours later than planned as Tosh had struggled to find anything on the group originally and had ended up going back to the Briscoe's house to see if there were any clues held there. The police hadn't been happy about it but as they didn't really have a choice they let her in after a lot of complaining about how Torchwood had caused the couple's deaths and how they were always taking over crime scenes.

"Pilgrim. A religious support group, more like a debating society. Meaning of life, does God exist, all that stuff. The point is, it was tiny, more like a hobby, ran by Mark Briscoe's wife, Sara. She had all that stashed in her wardrobe. Handwritten and photocopied. That's why we couldn't find any records. She isn't even online."

"No mention of Suzie or Max?" Jack asked

"Not a word. She didn't even keep a register."

"It wouldn't be our Suzie, though." Owen said. "She wouldn't go to that support-group bollocks."  
"How would you know? I mean were you friends? Any of you?" Gwen asked putting down the piece of paper she was looking at and looking at them instead, silently judging them. "Who was her best friend in this place?"  
"She sort of kept herself to herself." Owen replied.

"She had already started getting obsessed by the glove when I joined." Lucy shrugged. "Besides I'm not sure she approved of Jack letting me stay in Torchwood let alone with all of my memories intact. Suzie was a quiet and brooding type, didn't often come out with us and I gave up asking."

"Well if she needed to talk, maybe that's exactly where she'd go. A group of complete strangers." Gwen offered

"Could be." Jack agreed. "You've got a point Gwen. Time we got to know our deceased colleague a little better. Let's go a on a field trip to find out what we can."

 

They climbed out of the SUV in the pouring rain.

"Have I got this right?" Gwen asked. "When I die you get to keep all my possessions. My whole life's gonna get stashed in a locker?"  
"Rules and regulations." Jack replied as he punched in the code for the garage door.

"What if I leave my stuff to Rhys?"  
"We'll stash him away too."  
"I'm not happy about it either Gwen." Lucy said. "But now's not the time to complain about it."

The garage door lifted and they stared at the piles of boxes inside, this was one job that Jack refused any help for. He was the boss and it was up to him to deal with it, so although they all had previously known about it in theory; actually seeing Suzie's life in boxes was different.

"Tread carefully people, with respect. This is the life of Suzie Costello." Jack said and walked in, the others following him a second later. They walked into different areas pulling down random boxes to try and find any link between Suzie and Pilgrim.

"That's all we are in the end." Tosh said sadly. "A pile of boxes."  
"Is her father still alive?" Gwen asked as she looked at some photos.   
"Dunno."

"But you must've looked him up to tell him his daughter was dead."

"When Suzie left Torchwood, she was on the run. She wiped all her records. I couldn't retrieve her files. She was good at computers. She was good at everything."

"She was good at murder, too." Owen said. "Laugh a minute that was Suzie."

"What's that?" Gwen asked Jack.  
"A book." Lucy replied glancing over, "what does it look like."  
"It's Emily Dickinson" Jack said "Poet."  
"Jack." Tosh walked over and handed Jack a flyer for Pilgrim. There was no denying it now, Suzie was the link in this case between the small religious group and murders with Torchwood's name painted in blood on the wall. "Pilgrim. She's part of it."

"That proves it then. No choice. It's time Suzie came back."  
They quickly left the garage and locked up in silence, remembering Suzie and the feelings of disbelief and horror when they had found out what she had been doing under their noses.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The all stood in the med bay again, only this time it was more awkward. This time they only Jack and Gwen were actually looking at the body. The others were doing their best to not look at the woman who had once been their friend.

"Do we all get frozen?" Gwen asked, she had been surprised when the only bit of effort needed to get Suzie's body was to go further into the hub and pull it out of storage.

"Rules and regulations." Jack replied

"How long for?"  
"Forever."

"Recording." Tosh said

"Have you got your stopwatch?" Owen asked

"Always." Ianto responded pulling it out of his pocket.

"I'll record from my station." Tosh said uncomfortably. "I'm sorry but I don't want to look her in the eye. Sorry." With that she quickly disappeared from the medbay to the safety of her computers and her desk, away from Suzie.

"Anyone else?" Jack asked, and noticed Lucy looking uncomfortable too. "Lucy?"  
"No, I mean I'll stay but you don't actually need me here do you? Plus it won't take long for Suzie to realise that I knew about her death, I can't imagine she'll be very happy with me. So, um... I'll just stay at the back with Owen and Ianto looking at the medical equipment." She looked over at Owen who shrugged.

"As long as she doesn't break anything I don't care."  
"Ok." Jack agreed.

"Any advice?" Gwen asked as she put the glove on. "Yeah I know. Empathy. Even though she did try to kill me."

"You and me both."

Gwen put her hand to Suzie's forehead, the energy surged and she gasped. Lucy turned away to look at the screen pretending as though she understood what it was telling her.

"Ok we're getting a reading." Owen told the others. "No, it's gone."

Gwen pulled her hand away from Suzie and took some deep breaths.

"Just memories." Gwen said, still out of breath and trying to focus on the real world and not where she had been trying to pull Suzie out of. "Nothing else, she's too far gone."  
"What do we do now?" Tosh asked

"Nothing we can do." Jack replied. "That's it, we're out of options."  
"There's always the knife." Owen offered. "When she killed all those people she always used the knife. It's made out of the same metal as the glove"  
"We've seen it before." Tosh said. "Metallic resonance. Like the glove works better if the knife's part of the process, like closing a circuit."

"Then let's use it." Gwen said stubbornly, determined not to give up on the idea of finding out the information from Suzie herself instead of going the longer way round.

"Minor detail, Suzie's already dead. Does that mean we get to kill her again?" Lucy asked

 

They all stood in Jack's office in silence a he pulled out the three pronged knife that Suzie had used to kill people with. There was still traces of blood on it.

"Ianto?" Owen asked, looking to see if the archivist could come up with another cool name. There was a short pause while Ianto thought about it before speaking.

"The life knife."

Everyone nodded their approval and then looked at Lucy.  
"What! It's a good name..."  
"Yeah but last time he came up with a good name you said it sounded sexy." Owen joked back, trying to keep the mood light - it wasn't working.

"No I said his _accent_ was sexy. Ah shitting fucking hell. Can we just go and kill Suzie again and get this over with so I can curl up into a ball and hide until you forget that please!"

"Seeing as none of us are never going to forget what you said, hiding's not an option. But yes, let's get this over and done with." Jack said as he walked out from behind his desk and led them back into the med bay.

 

Lucy stood at the back with Owen and Ianto again, while Jack stood next to Suzie holding the knife and Gwen stood at her head with the glove on and resting on her forehead. Jack sliced Suzie's arm with the knife, although Suzie had been dead for over 6 months Lucy had still expected to see blood for some reason. It was weird seeing the skin pierced and no red liquid pouring out of it.

"Anything?" He asked Gwen

"No, there was just a sort of spark and then it was gone. I'm sorry, Jack. You're gonna have to do it properly."

Jack looked over at the three of them who all nodded their agreement.

"What the hell." Jack said has he positioned the knife over Suzie's stomach and stabbed down. The effect was instantaneous. Both Gwen and Suzie took a deep breath and Ianto pressed the little button on top of the stop watch.

"Suzie, listen it's me." Jack said as he tried to hold Suzie's body down.

"I've gotta go. I've gotta go." Suzie said panicking

"Just look around you. Look at where you are."  
"Can't stay. They know. I've gotta go!"

"Think, try to remember. Suzie! Suzie, look at me!"

"Jack? Oh my god?!" Suzie calmed down enough to realise that she was in the medbay of the hub. "There's a knife in my chest. Did you kill me?"  
"You killed yourself, remember?"

"But... oh my God. I shot myself."

"We gotta ask you about Pilgrim."  
"No, wait a minute didn't I kill you?"  
"Never mind that. We need names and details" Jack replied, he and Gwen were so focuses on Suzie that they didn't notice Ianto, Owen and Lucy all looking up at each other, none of them missing the importance of Suzie remembering that she had shot Jack. Because she hadn't socialised as much with them no one was certain about how much Suzie knew about Jack and his inability to stay dead.

"Whose using the glove?"  
"I'm sorry." Gwen replied

"Wouldn't you know it? Gwen bloody Cooper."

Lucy was desperate to point out that Torchwood wouldn't have had a vacancy for Gwen if Suzie hadn't gone on a murder spree and ended up killing herself, but she didn't want the attention to be turned on her.

"Thirty seconds." Ianto warned them

"When you were in Pilgrim, you gave the amnesia pill to a man - Max. Do you remember?"  
"What? You brought me all the way back just for Max?" Lucy had to admit Suzie was a good actor, less than a minute after she had been brought back from the dead and she was still able to not give anything away that might implicate herself as being the mastermind behind this.

"We need to find him. Who is he? What's his surname?"

"He was just.. some loser..." Suzie was struggling to stay conscious and they could see the effort it was taking from Gwen to keep her in the same plane of existence as them as well.

"We're losing her." Owen called over.  
"Stay here damn you!" Gwen said through gritted teeth.  
"Don't force it Gwen." Jack ordered

"She's not getting away this time. Stay here! No!" There was a surge of energy and Gwen fell backwards, her legs no longer able to properly support her, Jack and Owen ran to her side. Whilst Lucy and Ianto stayed where they were keeping an eye on the equipment.

"I told you to stop."

"It's all right, it's all right. I've got her. I've got her. Right. Here we go. Hold on." Owen said as he gave Gwen a quick once over. "Ok, pulse. Yeah, she's all right, we need to get her out of here. Can you come and give me a hand?"  
"It's the glove. I told you, they get hooked." Jack said holding the glove angrily, it had already taken away one member of his team and he didn't want it to steal another.

"All right, don't make a fuss. It's over now."

"Um Ianto, I'm not an expert." Lucy whispered to the Welshman. "But these readings mean Suzie isn't dead don't they?"

Ianto took a proper look at the display and nodded, confusion showing over his face before it went back to its normal calm and composed look.

"Excuse me." Ianto said loud enough that Owen and Jack could hear him and not just Lucy. "I'm still counting."  
"There's not much point. Suzie's dead." Owen said scathingly only briefly looking up before returning his eyes to Gwen.  
"No, according to your equipment, she's just unconscious"

"What the hell's going on?" Jack asked. Owen jumped up from the floor and over the cables to look at the readings himself before acknowledging that Lucy and Ianto weren't reading it incorrectly

"Oh my God. He's right. She's alive. Suzie's still alive. Look at her. She's bloody breathing."

"She can't be." Jack pulled the knife out but it made no change to the readings from the instruments. Suzie Costello was still alive.

"One minute thirty and counting." Ianto said looking at the stop watch.

"Um, her eyes are fluttering and she looks like she could be waking up." Lucy said having a proper look at Suzie before looking back at Owen. "Is it worth giving her something so we have time to work out what the hell to do next. I mean we've accidentally resurrected our ex-colleague, and she was hardly a bundle of laughs when she was alive the first time."

"Good idea. Owen make sure she stays out cold for a while. We need to talk about what to do next." Jack ordered.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Jack, Lucy and Gwen walked down into one of the rarely used interrogation rooms, where Suzie was sitting in a wheelchair.

"How long has it been?" She asked as they looked at her, Lucy sat on one of the bottom steps, Gwen leant against the wall and Jack moved to sit in the chair opposite as he dropped a file on the table.

"A month"

"When can I die? I just want to go. Can't you leave me alone?" Suzie moaned

"You seem to be stuck." Jack said

"But... am I going to stay like this?" Suzie asked lifting her head and looking at them properly. "For how long?"  
"Don't know."  
"What about you Lucy, do you know? You must know."  
"No idea, sorry Suzie." Lucy replied

"But you knew I was going to die didn't you. You knew!"  
"Yes." There was no point in lying. "I knew and once we'd been to the scene of your third murder victim and met Gwen I even knew it was going to happen in the next 72 hours or so."  
"And you didn't try to stop it. You killed me." Suzie accused  
"You killed yourself and there was nothing I could have done." Lucy said trying to stay calm.

"This isn't Lucy's fault Suzie and you know it." Jack said before Suzie could throw any more accusations.

"Can I see my father?"  
"No."

"You wiped your records, we had no trace of him" Gwen explained

"So he doesn't even know that I'm dead"  
"Well you're not anymore." Gwen's attempt at appeasing Suzie didn't worked as she scoffed at the Welshwomen, Lucy agreed with the sentiment.

"This is sick."

"You started it." Jack opened the file and pulled out the contents so Suzie could see. "Right now we've got an investigation underway. Pilgrim. You visited these Pilgrim meetings, gave an amnesia pill to someone called Max. How do we find him?"  
"What for, what did he do, he was just an ordinary bloke."

"We think the Retcon triggered a psychosis." Jack explained. "He started killing."  
"How many victims?"

"Three, same as you." Gwen replied.

 _"We need to know,"_ Owen said over the speakers into the room _"how much Retcon did you give him?"_  
"Owen, hello." Suzie said looking up at where she knew the CCTV camera was. "Scared to face me?"  
 _"You frighten the shit out of me, yeah."_

"What about Toshiko? Is she still here?" There was a pause before Owen answered again.

_"Yeah, she's here. All the gang. Happy days. But the amnesia pills, how many did you give him?"_

"One a week. Every week." Suzie said with a sigh, "For two years."  
"Bloody hell" Lucy breathed. "And you didn't that wouldn't damage him in any way"  
"I just... I wanted someone to talk to. About this place. It was driving me mad."

"Except everyone in Torchwood knows exactly what you are going through and would have talked with you if you wanted to - except maybe Owen."  
 _"Hey!"_  
"You can't tell me it's not true. Remember Diane?"

 _"That is not important"_  
"I just meant you don't tend to talk about things with people - you prefer to throw yourself into everything else, or mope. It's not a bad thing, it's just a thing."  
"Well it's good to see that nothing's changed since I died" Suzie said with a small smile. "Max just listened, that's all he listened. Every week after I finished talking I'd give him the pill."

"You overdosed him" Jack said simply.

"I didn't know that. Keep getting it wrong, don't I? Is that why you brought me back? Did you think I wasn't guilty enough?"

"What was his surname?" Jack had obviously got bored of the conversation and returned to the reason they were there in the first place.

"I don't know. All I ever did was talk about me. It's all my fault, isn't it? Never bloody stops being my fault."  
"It'll stop being your fault when it's not your fault." Lucy said bored of Suzie's pity party. " _You_ murdered those people Suzie, _you_ drugged Max not caring about the outcome from playing with his mind and memories. No one else did that, _you_." She stood up, preparing to leave.

"And you let it all happen." Suzie said loudly before Lucy had the chance to walk out. Instead of turning round and going up the stairs Lucy took a couple of steps forward and leant towards Suzie over the table. Suzie couldn't help but be intimidated by the younger woman who she had never been fond of while she had been part of the team.  
"I didn't have a choice, I still don't. Otherwise this whole thing would have ended a while ago. Max would be put somewhere safe and you would be back in storage where you belong. You're dead Suzie, you might be walking and talking and pulling from life somewhere but you're dead and you're going to stay that way. I'm damn well making sure of it, I promise. Do you want to know the best thing about that promise?" She glared at Suzie, her eyes dark with anger and fury, before giving her a small cold smile. "I don't have to change anything, just need to make sure everything happens the way it should. So enjoy life while you have it, in few days time maybe even as much as a week. You'll be back in cold storage, forever. And we'll all be getting on with our lives and with our job. The one that you did your best to discredit."  
Jack placed his hand on Lucy's back letting her know that she needed to calm down, Lucy shrugged him off and pulled backwards from the table, she stared at them all and then walked out of the interrogation room.

 

Instead of walking back towards Owen and Tosh in the hub she took the small staircase up to the higher levels where Myfwany stayed, and threw alternating squares of chocolate and handfuls of meat for the dinosaur to catch. Ianto found her there half an hour later, having finished the chocolate and simply throwing the meat in different directions, including down into the hub for Myfwany had to dive for it before it hit the main levels - Owen had shouted up at her for that but she ignored them. He simply sat next to her and waited for her to talk, after another fifteen minutes when it became obvious she wasn'tgoing to, he broke the silence.

"Well you definitely scared her."  
"Hmmm."  
"I think you scared pretty much everyone except Jack, and even he raised an eyebrow in shock."  
"Am I a bad person, Ianto?" Lucy asked suddenly.

"No." Ianto replied straight away.

"Really? I just told an ex-colleague that I would be happy when she was dead and we were getting on with our lives. Doesn't sound like something a good person would do."  
"Suzie's already dead, you just reminded her of that and that it was her fault." Lucy scoffed in disbelief.

"Then why is it all I can think of is how scared Suzie and Gwen looked, even Jack _. I_ did that."

"You lost your temper with an animated dead body who was trying to push the blame onto you because you weren't able to stop her. It doesn't make you a bad person."  
"I suppose." She threw the last piece of meat and then rolled her shoulder back and stood up. "Right, back to work. See if Suzie's told them anything more about Pilgrim. Something useful."

  
They got back to the central area of the hub as Jack was issuing orders, Suzie was sitting next to Tosh in her wheelchair and Lucy made a point of not standing near her. Suzie was also wearing a head scarf to hide the exit wound from the bullet - being able to see her brain wasn't pretty.

"Suzie says there's a person missing, someone who went to Pilgrim but isn't dead, Lucy McKenzie. She works at the Wolf Bar so we're going to go there and see if we can find Max. Lucy you're coming with us, Ianto can you make sure we've got a cell ready for him, not somewhere next to the weevils although we'll use that as a back-up plan if he doesn't talk to us."  
"No problem, the third floor is pretty empty."

"Tosh you take control of the CCTV, Suzie you're watching it with her to keep an eye out for Max while we look from the floor. Right, let's move out."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The drive to the Wolf Bar was silent, which made the noise from the club even louder as they showed their ID to the bouncer and pushed their way through the crowd.

"Cover the exits." Jack ordered, they nodded and spread out.

"Bloody hell" Gwen moaned. "Like I didn't have a banging headache already."

"That's the glove Gwen." Suzie said, they were using the headsets with added video cameras to keep in contact with each other and send images they were seeing back to the hub so Suzie could help. "Get's inside your mind."  
"Yes thanks Suzie. Stop freak me out. Any sign of Max or this Lucy McKenzie."  
"Nothing yet. Keep moving round."  
"I wish she didn't have my name." Lucy muttered. "You guys talking about how we need to save Lucy's life feels slightly weird."

"Well, it's weird for us too. Keep alert people." Jack said "To repeat, Max is described as 40, 6'3", 6'4", stocky, short dark hair, tattoo down his left arm."  
"Most of the men in here fit that description." Lucy muttered as she scanned the crowd.  
"Agreed." Owen said, "that really narrows it down."

There was a minute or so of silence as they all individually looked at the crowd, scanning different areas and staying near the exits so there was no chance of Max escaping, they couldn't risk losing him.

"Wait I've got a match on that guy." Owen said

"Where is he?"  
"Northwest bar."

Lucy started to walk over from where Owen had mentioned, pushing her way through the dancing crowd.

"Show me." Suzie ordered "Owen, get in closer. Which one do you mean?"

"Wait he's going over to the - hang on wait. I've got a match on our girl, Lucy McKenzie, the student."  
"That's her, that's definitely her." Lucy continued to push through the crowd, keeping her eyes on the barmaid.

"It's too late. He's going over." Owen pushed a man to the ground, and as Lucy spotted him she realised that it wasn't Max. Suzie saw that too and was in a position where she could tell him. Jack had decided that although Lucy had pretty much given the game away to Suzie about what she knew or didn't know it was best to stay quiet and not say anything else. Gwen hadn't been happy about it but Jack had shot down her arguments and the rest of the team agreed, Suzie had lost the right to be told what Lucy knew about the future.

"That isn't him." Suzie said in their ears. "That's not Max."

As Lucy reached the group, Jack and Owen holding a man to the floor she noticed Max holding a knife and was pushed to the ground. Her head started ringing and the world seemed to move in slow motion as well as fast forward as her ears rang and the music became muted.

"Gwen, behind you!" Suzie shouted, giving Gwen enough time to dodge the knife as Max brought it down. Jack jumped from the man and brought Max to the ground.

"That was for Ianto, Risen Mitten, Life Knife, and the old classic, Stun Gun."  
"You saved my life." Gwen breathed.

"Maybe I was brought back for something after all."  
"Is everyone ok?" Jack asked as he looked round at Owen and Gwen who both nodded, it was then he spotted Lucy on the ground as she tried and failed to push herself up. Jack ran to her side

"Owen, over here. Lucy?" Jack gently pulled her up into a sitting position and letting her lean against him. Owen ran over to examine her.

"I'm fine, the world is wrong though. Everything is slow and quiet, except the bells." She said trying to explain, batting the small torch Owen was holding away. "The bells are loud. Why do you have a torch? Do you keep wood in the same pocket too? Then you've got Torchwood" She giggled

"She's got concussion." Owen said looking at Jack."Lucy you need to stay awake, I'll get her into the SUV you deal with Max. Gwen are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, he missed me. Suzie saved my life."

"It sounds like the TARDIS." Lucy said, "all blue and wooysh. And loud and quiet all at the same time." Lucy said as Jack and Jack helped her to her feet.

"You need to focus on the sound of the TARDIS, in fact why don't you tell me everything you can about the Doctor and his TARDIS." Owen said as he half carried Lucy out of the club.

"Well, he ran away from Gallifrey, stole a TARDIS and ran away - woosh. And she's so pretty and she doesn't like Jack, because she's everywhere and he's all fixed and not moving. But shuuuush, that's a secret..."

 

Owen managed to get Lucy back to the hub safely, Jack stole a police vehicle for their new guest and Gwen drove as he maintained conversation with her poking and prodding her when her eyes began to drift shut.

"What happened?" Ianto asked as he saw Owen walk her into the hub, with an arm around her to keep her steady. He took Lucy's other side which meant she didn't need to concentrate as much on the difficult task of walking in a straight line and up and down some steps. Gwen had come in before them and had obviously been in charge of opening the doors, her face showed that she wasn't best pleased with that idea but also that she was concerned about Lucy. Ianto couldn't help but wish he'd been a fly in the SUV, a journey with the two girls together where Lucy had no conscious filter on what she was saying. The stuff she would have said and Gwen's face as she heard it would have been priceless.

"Concussion." Owen replied, "We'll have to look at the CCTV footage and our recordings gain to see what happened, we missed it as we tackled someone who wasn't Max to the ground. She'll be fine but needs to stay conscious for another hour and then I'll wake her up every half hour after that to check on her. She'll be fine."  
"I'm always fine." Lucy mumbled, "even when I'm at the foot of the stairs I'm fine. And glass too, I am super girl, nothing hurts me."  
Both men looked at each other worried about their friend and colleague as Jack walked up from the cells.

"He's all settled in, Owen once you can leave Lucy I need you to do a full check up on him, find out what makes him tick. That sort of thing."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

When Lucy woke up the next morning on the sofa in the hub she groaned in pain, her head was pounding, Tosh turned round from her desk.

"How are you feeling?"  
"My head hurts." Lucy replied, "what actually happened? I remember we went to the club, and Owen said he'd spotted Max. But nothing after that. God I sound like I got wasted."

"You were thrown to the floor, landed head first and got concussion. It was quite funny really, once we knew you were fine. Called yourself Super Girl - had to be stopped from trying to fly - insulted Gwen and she wasn't able to respond because you were so out of it as well as trying to mimic the sound of the TARDIS and not very well according to Jack."  
"So I acted drunk without actually being drunk and getting any of the 'good' bit of it then?"  
"Pretty much."  
"Did we get Max or was it a wasted journey."  
"We got him. Owen is telling Jack about what he found out right now, they're in the cells." She grabbed her bag and after ruffling through it for a bit chucked something at Lucy who caught it. "Have some paracetamol, should stop that headache, Owen said I could give it to you if you needed it. I'll let Owen know you're up, he'll want to do a final check before giving you the all clear."

"Thanks." Lucy said as she grabbed a water bottle from the side and swallowed the tablets. "Anything I need to know, where's Gwen?"  
"Talking to Suzie." Tosh said, not looking at Lucy at the mention of their old colleague.  
"Ahh, ok. Um, I might go find Ianto or get on with some work. I've nearly finished rewriting the old files and typing them up. Errr, bye, thanks for the pain killers." Lucy walked away from Tosh who called her back

"Lucy?"

"Yes?" Lucy span round and immediately wished she hadn't and her head pounded.

"It's about what Suzie said. It's not your fault that this happened." Lucy gave her a forced smile.

"Thanks Tosh, but I understand what she means. I might not be her fault but I didn't do anything to try and stop her dying did I?"  
"You couldn't though."  
"Doesn't hold up in a court of law. Knowing but not being able to do anything about it. Anyway, Suzie's back for now - kind of."  
"You knew about this too." Tosh said, it wasn't an accusation, just a simple statement but that seemed to hurt more.

"Yeah, yeah I did."

"You said she was getting her energy and life force from somewhere." Tosh said, and Lucy could see her mind working as she shrugged in response.

"Well she's dead but her body is moving, her brain is working. That means there's some form of energy and it's not coming from her."  
"So where's it coming from?"  
"Dunno, it's not my job to try and find out. I'm weapons, not technology or medical. I'd suggest maybe you or Owen think about it."  
"Thanks." Tosh started doing something on the computer as she had an idea.  
"No problem, all I did was tell you that I can't tell you where she gets her life force from. Do you want some coffee?"  
"Hmmm."

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Jack you need to see this." Lucy said as she walked into his office, only to find him talking to Gwen. "Sorry to interrupt, I've been sent from Owen, he's found something."  
"What?" Jack asked as he got up and walked past Gwen who moved to follow as well

"Dunno, he just told me to get you and that it was urgent. Err, you're not actually needed Gwen, sorry. He said to just get Jack."

"Ok fine. I'll just get on with some work then shall I?"  
"Good idea, you can start on the report you owe me." Jack said as he left his office with Lucy, Gwen glared at the back of their heads as they walked away from her.

 

"I was going over Suzie and Gwen's medical records." Owen explained once Lucy and Jack joined, him, Tosh and Ianto in the conference room. If Jack was surprised that Gwen was the only one not there, he didn't mention it. "I ran them through the Philemon Filter. Watch the footage."  
They watched the recording of Gwen bringing Mark Briscoe, back to life using the glove. Energy was streaming from Gwen into the body.

"This is the moment when Gwen brought back Mark Briscoe, the husband. See? Now look at his death. You see? The energy flow stops just as he's about to die."  
Sure enough, Owen was right, as Briscoe died again the light connecting the two stopped a second or so before.

"But have a look at Gwen with Suzie."

He changed the recording and the stream of energy was definitely stronger and fiercer than before but that wasn't what Owen wanted them to see.

"Whoa." Jack breathed  
"What is that?" Tosh asked

"Energy." Lucy replied before Owen could, "Energy from Gwen giving Suzie life."  
"What Lucy said, but with Suzie it's a permanent connection and she _is_ getting stronger. It's still going right now. She is draining the life out of Gwen."  
"There's always a price." Jack said as he realised what was going on. "The wearer of the glove can bring somebody back but loses their own life in return."  
"A life for a life."

"How do we stop it?" Tosh asked.

"We've got to kill her." Jack replied.

"Except she's draining life from Gwen, won't that just make her drain it faster?" Lucy asked, "If she needs more to stay alive?"  
"Well right now I can't think of any other idea. Suzie's got to die."  
"Again?" Tosh exclaimed.

"Who's gonna do it?" Owen asked.

"Like you said," Jack pulled his service revolver from its holster. "I'm the boss." He walked/ran out of the conference room and the rest of the team looked at each other before all following him out of the conference room and back to their jobs. Lucy to her laptop on the sofa, Owen to the medbay, Ianto to the archives and Tosh to her workstation

 

"Toshiko." Jack said through the speaker system, causing Lucy to look up from her game of minesweeper, she had got bored with the paperwork a while ago - mainly because it was so repetitive - and started flicking through different games. "Where the hell is Suzie? And where's Gwen?"

"Interrogation room." Tosh replied

"No, they're not. Find them. Fast." Tosh started running scans and Lucy moved to Gwen's workstation where she could bring up the CCTV so she could help and speed up the process.

"I can't see them." Tosh said. "Hold on, scanning." There was a few seconds pause as Jack and Owen joined them and the computer completed the task. "Nope. Nothing on internal scanners."  
"I can't see her on the internal CCTV." Lucy called over

"What's going on?" Where've they gone?" Owen asked.

"We don't know that's why we're looking for them." Lucy pointed out.

"Oh ha ha very funny." Owen smirked.

"Just keep looking." Jack said." Bring up the SUV."  
"Nothing." Lucy said before Tosh could look, "I've already checked that, it's still there and they didn't leave through the tourist office exit, no sign of them on the plass."

"What about Gwen's car?" Tosh said thinking out loud as she brought up the camera, only to see Gwen helping Suzie into her car before going round the other side and getting in.

"What's she doing?" Owen asked as Lucy walked over to join them.

"Getting herself fired." Jack replied.

"Unbelievable." Tosh said, and Lucy could almost imagine Tosh swearing from the way she said it.

"Gwen falls for a sob story every time." Lucy said. "And she thinks all this is her fault."

"But how stupid is that?" Owen muttered. "Thinking she could just drive off."  
"Well I've been saying it for a while...."

"Lucy don't." Jack warned. "Let's go get them."

 

As they moved away from the workstation the lights and the electrics all shut down and a locking sound was heard.

"What the hell?" Jack said, saying what they were all thinking. "Ianto? Ianto!" He started to run towards the archive, but Ianto came up with a torch at the same time.

"Captain."  
"What happened?"  
"But I thought you must've done it. We've gone into lockdown."

"Then reverse it."  
"I can't. It's 100% The doors are sealed. We're locked in."  
"Shit." Lucy said as she sat back on her sofa. "this is going to make catching Suzie before she kills Gwen more difficult."

"Just a bit." Owen agreed

"Everything's gone."Tosh said as Jack and Ianto came back and joined them. "Everything, computers, mobile coverage, lifts, everything. We're sealed in."

"How long does Gwen have before she dies?" Jack asked Owen

"Two hours, maybe less."  
"Come on, think! If Suzie set up the lockdown how did she do it? She's officially dead the computer wouldn't give her access" Tosh said

"Then how did she do it? What the hell did she do?"

"Suzie couldn't physically start the lockdown." Tosh was thinking aloud as she tried to solve the puzzle in front of her. "Gwen wouldn't let her."  
"But we've got a guest." Lucy pointed out."Suzie's been playing the long game here, she knew we'd have to use the knife to wake her up eventually and she helped us bring Max in."  
"So she set up a program that would respond once Max was here and she had left. That's brilliant." Tosh grinned before realising what she said. "I mean, apart from the fact that Gwen's going to die and we're locked in."  
  


Owen, Jack and Lucy ran down to the cells where Max was sitting cross legged talking.

"...but would not stop for me. The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality. Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me."  
"What is that?" Owen asked. "A poem"

"The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality."

"Emily Dickenson." Jack replied. "A verbal trigger. Say it out loud, maybe repeat it 100 times over and the Hub locks down"

"Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me. The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality."

"But if that's part of the system, Suzie must've installed a vocal command program way back."  
"Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me."

"Like I said she's been playing the long game. It appears the one thing that Suzie is scared of is death." Lucy said

The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality."

"Max is just a Trojan horse." Jack agreed. "Suzie planned this right from the start."

 

"You see." Jack explained to the others when they rejoined them upstairs. "Max, the Retcon, everything. It's all been a hoax to get us to resurrect Suzie."

"She gave Max a whole complex of subconscious triggers." Owen said in disbelief.

"Like, she dies, Max becomes a time bomb." Tosh thought.

"Exactly, she hasn't spoken to Max for 6 months and he suddenly started killing people in Pilgrim. Suzie knew that would lead us to her and we'd have to use the knife because there would be no other way of finding a link between them as Mrs Briscoe didn't keep a list of members." Lucy completed the explanation.

"The whole chain of events forces us to bring Suzie back." Jack said

"And then she escapes, using the weak link - Gwen. Someone who doesn't know her so she can play on her emotions."

"You gotta admit, that is not bad." Owen said appreciatively. "I'm picking her for my team."  
"If she could lock down the hub she must've installed a way of reversing it, just in case." Tosh pointed out.

"Yeah." Jack agreed "But what and how do we find it?"

After they had been discussing and arguing about what back door Suzie might have left themselves for about five minutes. Ianto called up to them.

"I've got reception sir."  
"How did you do that?" Jack asked as he ran over. "We're sealed off."  
"Just used the water tower as a relay." Ianto handed his phone over to the Captain, and Tosh looked as though she deserved to be punished for not thinking about that as a way of helping them escape

"Nice work Ianto. But who the hell do we phone?"

"Um, you're going to hate me for suggesting this. But I've got the card for Detective Swanson in my wallet." Lucy said as grabbed her bag which was on the floor next to the sofa. "We're working the same case so I've been calling her regularly to check that they haven't found anything. She's not been happy about it, but I think hearing that we're as stuck as they are helped."  
"But we're not as stuck as they are." Owen said.  
"Yeah, but I was hardly going to say that we know who the killer is because we brought the victims back to life was I?" Lucy said sarcastically as she got the card and passed it over to Jack. "Unless you can think of anyone else."  
"No." Jack took the card off her and started typing in the number on it. "Good thinking Lucy, and calling to check in on them too." She shrugged.

"Just doing my job."

"No it's - Hi this is Torchwood, can I speak to Detective Swanson please."

There was muffled voices as the phone was passed over and Jack placed it on the table on speakerphone.

 _"Miss Smith it's late, you'd better not be wasting my time."  
_ "Actually it's Captain Harkness and as a matter of fact, I was wondering if you could do us a favour."

_"What the humble police helping the mighty Torchwood? Why don't you just help yourselves like you normally do?"_

"Because we can't?"  
 _"Why's that?"_

"We're sorta busy."   
_"Well I'm busy too. Try someone else."_

"No, no, no, it's just because we can't, at the moment, because we're sort of stuck."  
 _"In what way?"  
_ "We're locked in."

 _"You're locked in?"  
_ "Just a bit."  
 _"Locked in where?"_  
"Um, in our own base"

 _"You're locked inside your own base?"  
_ "And it's not funny" They could hear her laughing, and Lucy agreed that if the situation wasn't so dire and it wasn't happening to them then she would find it funny too.

_"And how am I supposed to help you, exactly?"_

"We need a book of poetry." She laughed again. "It's not funny."

 

They let Swanson have her laugh as Jack repeated for everyone else in the office on her end to hear their problem as someone was sent to get the specific book of poetry they needed. Jack was relying on the memory of the book of poems he had seen in Suzie's lock up.

_"All right, Captain Jack, just say that one more time. Nice and clear"_

"We're locked in our own base and we can't get out. Ok, you've had your fun. Now, listen, Detective Swanson, one of our team is in danger."  
"The one who used to be part of your police force." Lucy added

 _"All right, you lot, back to work."_ Swanson said and they heard her take it off speaker phone. _"Ok I've got it. 'The Complete Poems'. It's gonna cost you 20 quid."_  
"20 quid and a week's worth of the best coffee you've ever had." Lucy agreed quickly.

"Oi, I'm not a coffee machine you can rent out you know." Ianto said, looking slightly disgruntled.

"I might not like Gwen but I don't want her to die." Lucy replied.

"Fine I'll make the coffee."  
"Great, now if you two could stop having a lover's tiff can we get back to the issue at hand."  
"We're not together captain"  
"Not a couple"

"What does the book say?" Jack asked Swanson, ignoring Lucy and Ianto's protest.

_"I don't know. What am I supposed to do?"_

"Find 'I Could Not Stop For Death'. Read out the next verse."  
 _"What if that doesn't work?"_  
"Read out the whole book."  
 _"It's gonna be a long night."_  
"We've got about 2 hours before our colleague dies, so if you could try and keep to that time frame."

 _"Don't worry Miss Smith."_ Swanson said. _"I won't forget, I doubt you'll let me."_

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

"Part is all we know of heaven And all we need of hell" Jack said, "no try another."  
" _Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed."_ Swanson read _"Christ she was a bundle of laughs."_

" Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed" Jack repeated loud enough that if it was the reverse code the system would have picked it up.

"Wait a minute" Tosh said, "just had a thought. If words cause the lockdown maybe number reverse it. Try the ISBN. Every book's got a different number."

_"Yeah, hang on. I'm looking."_

"Read it out." Tosh ordered, suddenly energised by the hope that they might be able to get out of there in time. Lucy and Owen had fallen back to the sofa and minesweeper and solitaire 20 minutes ago.

"They keyboards aren't working" Jack pointed out.

"But the membrane underneath might just recognise the code."

 _"Ok, got it. ISBN 0198600585_ " Tosh typed every number as she heard it, she pressed enter and the screen showed the message, 'reversing lockdown.'

"That's it!" Jack said and Lucy and Owen jumped up from the sofa and grabbed their weapons. "Everybody move, move, move! Kathy, thank you. I'll send Lucy or Ianto with that coffee tomorrow lunch time."

 

"I've got the tracker on Gwen's car." Tosh said in their ear as Jack, Lucy and Owen jumped into the SUV. "It's a hospital. Giving you the coordinates now."  
"On the way." Jack turned to Owen. "How long's she got?"  
"It's only a guess but I'd give Gwen about 40 minutes."  
"Lucy, I want the road ahead clear." Jack said, she had called Swanson again on her mobile as soon as they were out of the hub and she relayed the message.

"Detective we are going to break the speed limit big time, clear the road as much as is humanly possible."

_"No problem. 'All units give Torchwood priority. I repeat give Torchwood priority."_

"Thank you detective I'll call you again once we're in the clear. Jack we need to get a siren or something so others will clear for us."

"Yeah well I'll think about it once all this is sorted."

 

"They're moving again." Tosh warned them. "Can't predict a specific destination not yet."  
"Keep feeding it through." Jack ordered. "We're catching up." Jack's phone went off and he patched it through to his ear piece. "Hello? ... ... Suzie don't let her die. The glove is killing Gwen and keeping you alive."  
Owen turned round to look at Lucy, surprised that Suzie would be calling them

"What does she want?" He asked

"Psycho bitch wants to show off." Lucy said quietly and he nodded, there was a time when Lucy calling Suzie a psycho bitch would have made him angry, now he agreed.

"Then stop. ... For Gwen's sake. ... Suzie we've got a tracker on that car. We're gonna catch up. I promise... ... If she's dead, then I'm going to kill you Suzie Costello. And I believe Lucy made a promise to the same effect as well. I'm gonna kill you for the last and final time. ... ... Why are you doing this? ... ... Suzie please, just stop. ... ... SUZIE!"

"She's heading for the coastline on the B587. It's a place called Hedley Point. There's some sort of ferry goes out to the islands. Get a move on."  
"So Suzie know we're out then." Owen said.

"Yeah but we know where she's going and we don't have to answer to speed limits." Lucy said. "We've still got a chance."  
"Owen, how long we got?" Jack asked

"Minutes."

 

They pulled up to see Gwen's car parked near the entrance, Jack drove as far as he could while Owen and Lucy readied their guns, taking the safety off so they could shoot Suzie straight away. At this point ,every second counted. They jumped out of the car, wasting a second to shut the doors and started to run.

Suzie was leaning over Gwen's body which was lying on the floor. She spotted them, kissed Gwen on the forehead and started to run. Owen stopped to check on Gwen but Lucy and Jack continued to follow Suzie.

"Let her go." Jack said bringing his gun up, Suzie was trapped on the end of the pier, there was nowhere else to run.

"I can't."

"Let Gwen go." He repeated harshly.

"I can't!"

"Owen how is she? Owen! Report!"  
"I think we're too late." Owen said.  
"Can't be. Suzie is in a grand total of two episodes out of a possible 31." Lucy said, keeping her gun trained on Suzie much like Jack was. She sneered at the older woman. "You're going back into the dark."  
"If I kill her does she live?" Jack asked Lucy.  
"But you can't, Jack. Cause look at me. I'm the last thing left of Gwen Cooper. Can't you see it. Lucy's fairytale stories are wrong." Suzie said.

"No. There's nothing of Gwen in you." Jack said and shot her in the chest, while Lucy shot her in the leg. Suzie collapsed to the floor. "Owen anything?"  
"Nothing."  
"But I broke the connection."   
"Nothing." Owen repeated, quietly, shock starting to sink in.

"The connection is with the glove and the knife though." Lucy pointed out. "Break the thing that's connecting them..."  
"... And you break the connection. Brilliant." Jack said.

"You came up with it first." Lucy replied shooting Suzie again in the other leg as she tried to get up. Suzie was laughing on the floor.

"I can't die. Never gonna die."

"Tosh, Ianto, destroy the glove and the knife." Jack ordered using the ear piece.

"It's all your fault Jack." Suzie said laughing, "you recruited me." Jack shot her again, in anger, in the hope that she would die, and just because he could. "Captain my captain." She giggled. "Do you want to know a secret? There's something moving in the dark and it's coming, Jack Harkness. It's coming for you."  
"Well it'll have to wait an awfully long time then." Lucy said, shooting Suzie again herself. Suzie's body lurched up before collapsing to the floor again, this time she was finally dead.

"Who, whoa, whoa!" Owen said as Gwen did the same thing only she was alive. "It's ok. It's ok. It's ok! Relax."

"Arrrgghhhh."  
"Welcome back Gwen." Lucy muttered as she stowed her gun and walked towards them. "Jack I'll go deal with the police. Someone probably called them about the gunshots."  
"Yeah." Jack said distracted looking between Gwen and Suzie, obviously thinking about what Suzie had said. "Yeah thanks."  
She ran up to met them, pulling her ID out of her pocket, stopping the protected officers in their tracks.

 


	15. Chapter 15 -  Greeks Bearing Gifts

They walked into the excavation tent having received after intercepting some information on CRIMNET saying that not only was a skeleton found on an building site just outside Cardiff but that something wasn't right with the body and there was a 'thing' with it. The police weren't happy when they turned up and took over the scene but as there was nothing they could do they let them in. Gwen and Jack were leading the group whilst Tosh, Owen and Lucy had all the equipment.

"Just once I'd like to walk into one of these tents and find it's a party." Jack complained as Owen immediately jumped into the hole and got to work.

"You go to odd parties." Lucy commented

"With food, drink, people dancing, a girl crying in the corner." He continued, "It's not that odd."

"In the middle of an building site in a field, with a dead body?" She shrugged, "sounds like an odd party to me."

"Is it alien?" Gwen asked

"And how. I'm picking up traces of ilmenite, pyroxene and even Dark Matter"  
"Any idea what it is?"  
"Not a clue. Could be a weapon or a really big stapler. How's our friend there?" He asked Owen.

"She's dead." He said sarcastically before returning his attention to what used to be a body.  
"Yeah, thanks, Quincy. 'She'?"

"Judging by the size of her skull."  
"How long have they been here, Tosh?"

"From the depth they found them..." She checked the information against her machine as Lucy passed Owen something from his box of gadgets, she had long given up learning the name of most of Owen's things and Owen had stopped trying to teach her and instead just pointed at what he wanted. "196 years, 11 to 11-and-a-half months."  
"That is almost scary" Lucy said staring at Tosh.

"Well the earth's been disturbed so I'm afraid I can't be more accurate."  
"How is that not accurate, you've got it to within two weeks?"   
"What killed her, the stapler?" Gwen asked before Tosh could reply and go into one of her long-winded talks about what her technology combined with different bits of information could achieve.

"Nah, see those shattered ribs?" Owen pointed at what he was explaining, "I reckon she was shot."

"Well let's get her back to the hub and find out." Jack said standing up and Owen pulled himself out of the hole. Gwen grabbed his hand and helped to pull him up.

"Oh, you're so light. You're like a girl." She teased Owen  
"I'm not light, I'm wiry" He replied. "Fat girls go mad for it. But I guess I don't need to tell you that."  
Lucy looked away from the pair of them and focussed on how they were going to move the skeleton and cause as little damage as possible.  
  


(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Tosh walked into the hub the next afternoon, after having the morning off work. Lucy was up in the central area getting on with some paperwork in advance of her time off, Owen and Gwen were giggling after kicking a ball about and Ianto was upstairs doing something as he looked at the 'thing' or the 'stapler' they have taken from the building site.

"Um, I'm really sorry." Owen said to Tosh as he and Gwen broke apart and went to their own workstations. "But I think your computer might be dead."

"You're kidding." Tosh said running to the machine. "What happened?"

"Ok, so she said I was no good at sport." Owen started telling the tale, "Hello? So I said 'well, throw something to me and..."

"What happened to the computer?" Tosh interrupted angrily

"Oh, I kicked out the plug." He said awkwardly

"What? I was running a translation program I'd written. I'd collated every scrap of alien language we've got and broken it down into binary threads to see if there was a common derivation."  
"That's a bit of a mouthful." Owen muttered and Gwen giggled.

"Sorry. Private joke... erm stupid joke."

"It sounds impressive." Lucy said timidly, hoping to calm the Japanese woman down before her language changed from English to Japanese when she would immediately withdraw all support for Owen - not that she wanted to support Owen; she just didn't want an angry Tosh on the rampage in the hub.

"It would have been, I've been working on it for months now. We're supposed to be professionals. We've got a job to do."  
"You know what Tosh." Owen said angrily and Gwen skulked off, "Sometimes I think even that stick up your arse has got a stick up its arse."

"Whoa." Lucy said jumping up from her chair, "You just kicked the plug out of her computer while she had important work running. She's allowed to be angry."  
"We were just having some fun, lighten up a bit"

"Oh piss off Owen," She snorted and the doctor walked away, Lucy called after him. "And when you've got the time have another look at the Hub rules, especially number 6." He just stuck two fingers up at her and continued to walk away. Lucy turned round to Tosh instead.

"I know that I can't actually help but is there anything I can do, even if it's just to prompt Ianto into making us some coffee, or hot chocolate?"  
"No." Tosh said as distractedly as she turned the computer back on. "No, it's fine. Thank you though."  
"Well if you're sure." Lucy shrugged, "I do feel slightly bad for leaving you alone with them while I have the next five days off."  
"Don't be, you need time off just as much as the rest of us. Time away from this place will be good for you." She waved off Lucy's worry and tried to reassure her friend while she focused on the screen in front of her.  
"Hmmm..." Lucy didn't say anything and they both returned to their work, five minutes later Tosh spoke again.

"Did you come up with that rule specifically because of this?" She asked, Lucy looked up and smirked.

"Now why would I ever do a thing like that?"

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Tosh smiled at Ianto who was giving her a mug of coffee, he returned the smile although it did not match his thoughts that she could hear due to the alien pendant that hung round her neck

‘... _pain, this never ending pain, I can’t remember a time without it’_ She was worried for the Welshman when his thoughts suddenly lit up, if it was possible she could hear the smile in them although his face looked confused. ‘ _Lucy!’_

 

She looked up from her desk to find Lucy walking into the hub, “Hey guys” The girl smiled at them, as they all look confused as to why she was there as she had had the past few days off work and wasn't sue to come back until tomorrow. “I know I'm still officially on holiday, don't worry Jack I've not come in to work or train, I'm just here to get a new DVD out of the safe and get my wallet which I left in my locker. Also,” The smile grew but Tosh knew it was faked, as did Ianto who was still standing next to her. “I was bored so I randomly made cake... thought you might want some.” They all got up and ran over to try and get a slice of the cake she had made. Turning down cake was not something any sane Torchwood agent did on a such a slow day, or on any day really. Besides they were hungry and the last time Lucy had make a cake it was delicious. This one was a marble cake and Lucy had decorated it with lots of brightly different colour flowers.

Tosh was close enough to hear her thoughts now, ‘Becky _, god I hope she’s ok, need to smile. Can’t let them know. I’m fine, I’m Lucy Smith, I’m always fine, oh God Becky... Miss her so much... stay together Lucy, stay with it. Nothing you can do. Smile.’_ Pain was dripping off every word and it was all she could do not to cry at the thought of her friend suffering so much.

She had thought Ianto’s pain was bad enough but it was nothing in comparison to the waves of emotion coming off Lucy. Ianto had been suffering from mainly a physical pain, whilst Lucy's was pure emotion. It made Tosh just want to curl into a ball and cry and she knew that she was only feeling an echo of what the other girl thought. Tosh couldn’t help but be surprised at how Lucy was able to walk around and smile as though nothing was wrong and wondered how often her friend had done it and none of them had noticed how badly she was struggling, it also made her wonder how long Lucy had been keeping a mask in place to hid her true emotions.

“You ok Tosh?” Lucy asked their tech, worried as she hadn’t taken a slice of cake yet and looked upset.

“Yeah sorry” She took the slice that was offered to her, “thanks Lucy.”

Lucy just smiled back, “Not a problem, what else was I going to do with a big cake? Ianto and I were not going to be able eat it all ourselves at home. Now I’m going to leave this cake here and go get my wallet and the next couple of disks. Honestly, I’d forget my head if it was possible. You sure you’re ok?” Tosh nodded as she had cake in her mouth and Lucy walked away and deeper into the hub to retrieve her wallet.

 

As she walked back up Ianto was waiting for her with coffee in a takeaway cup.

“Thought you might want coffee while you’re out shopping.”

“Thanks Yan. You spoil me, do you want anything from town or anything in particular for dinner tonight. I was thinking macaroni cheese.”

“That sounds brilliant. Can you tidy the lounge?”

“Sure” She took a deep drink of the coffee, before slinging her bag over her shoulder again and walking out of the hub with a quick goodbye thrown over her shoulder.

Owen, Gwen, Tosh and Jack all looked at Ianto with bemusement and laughter in their eyes.

“You sound quite domestic” Gwen commented.

“Well, we live together. It tends to happen, no point us both cooking separate things.”

“You almost sound like a couple” Owen taunted.

“Don’t be silly Owen” Ianto replied, “just because you struggle with the concept doesn’t mean men and women can’t be friends without being a couple.” And with that, he walked back into the archives leaving them all to their own work.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Lucy spent the rest of the day wondering around town picking up a few bits and pieces, as she tried to distract herself from her own thoughts and convince the world that she was fine. She looked at the clock and realised that Ianto would soon be back home and she still hadn’t got what was needed for dinner so she meandered into the supermarket and threw the items needed into her basket. Somehow, she found herself in the alcohol aisle, before she could talk herself out of it she put a bottle of vodka in her basket as well, she paid for it and left the shop.

She didn’t drink, but today, today she needed something to stop her thoughts and knew that drink would work. At least for now anyway, she heard her phone ring but ignored it deciding instead to open the bottle. Life could wait, Torchwood could wait and besides she was on holiday.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

Tosh spoke to Ianto before he left.

“Ianto, I need to talk to you.” He waited patiently for her to say what it was she didn’t know how to phrase. “About today, I know I shouldn’t know but... it’s about Lucy." Whatever Ianto was expecting it wasn’t that and he was suddenly worried.

“What did you hear?”

“Something’s wrong today Ianto. She didn’t take the past few days off for no reason, the cake wasn’t for no reason. But I don’t know why, she kept thinking about Becky and then kept trying to convince herself she was fine.” Ianto was looking at her intently, “I’m worried about her, Ianto, today isn’t a good day for her. And Jack said he'd tried to call her in as well but she didn't respond, she could be anywhere doing anything” Tears welled in her eyes at the thought of her friends suffering but she didn’t allow them to fall, “I don’t know how she was still going Ianto, I could feel a shadow of her pain and I was ready to break, now she's gone AWOL I'm just...”

“Thanks Tosh” Ianto replied he gave her a quick hug, “I’d invite you round tonight but...”

“Don’t worry.” She said and gave him a slight shove towards the door. “Go. Let me know if you find her, if not I'll start organising a man hunt.”

Ianto grabbed his stuff and left the hub as quickly as he could, hoping that Tosh was wrong and that he’d just find Lucy in the kitchen singing to herself as she cooked. But, Toshiko had been hearing their thoughts he couldn’t ignore it, plus he had been starting to get worried about his house mate as well. She was jumping from one extreme to another - either doing everything around the house with a lot of nervous energy or sitting on the sofa with the TV on staring into space.

 

When he opened the door he called out for her as he dropped his keys on the side table, instead of putting them away.

“Lucy? You in?” there was no reply and he found his worry grow. He went to walk into her room but saw the door of his room was open so he looked inside, he found her curled up on his bed, with one of his shirts clutched to her chest and a bottle of vodka in her other hand, about two thirds of the bottle was gone. It took him a few seconds to understand what he was seeing.

“Shit” he whispered, and went to her side, “Lucy? Come on Lu, you need to wake up”. Nothing, he slapped her checks “Lucy wake up, come on, just wake up” Lucy rolled over.

“Piss off” She mumbled and Ianto breathed a sigh of relief, he removed the bottle from her hands and drained what was left down the sink. He then tried to take the shirt away but her grip was too tight so he gave up.

“Lucy you need to get up.”

“Don’t want to”

“But you need to.” He pulled the duvet off her and she opened her eyes and glared at him.

“Yan...”

“Up!” He said sternly and she pushed herself up but collapsed back down unable to support herself. Ianto sighed and pulled her up. “What the hell were you doing? You don’t drink”

At the sound of the word drink Lucy realised she was no longer holding the bottle.

“Where is it Ianto?”

“Down the sink. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I’m going to be sick” She mumbled before leaning forward and throwing up all over his bedroom floor.  
“Come on, let’s get you to the bathroom.” Ianto sighed

He supported her weight and pretty much carried her into the bathroom where she threw up again but this time into the loo.

“My head hurts.”

“That’s what happens when you drink two thirds of a bottle of vodka straight, even Owen would struggle with that. What were you thinking?”

“Becky’s birthday today” Lucy replied as though she hadn’t hear him, “She’s 10.”

Ianto wasn’t a prying person normally but Lucy was normally so carefully with the information she revealed about her life before Torchwood and something had upset her and he wanted to know what it was. Plus it kept her talking and awake so he asked.

“Will you tell me more about Becky?”

“My sister” Lucy replied and Ianto could see she was trying not to slur her words, “Social took her, when she was eight. Haven’t let me take her back. Say I need to grow up without her. I brought her up and now I’m not good enough. I protected her and took all the blame. Every punch.”

“What happened?” He was finally learning why she was comfortable in the shadows and not sure if he really wanted to know, but he had to keep Lucy awake and she obviously needed to talk about it.

“Mum’s mind is fucked up, Dad turned to the bottle and started hitting me, Becky was a brand new baby, I looked after her and mum. 'Til Mum killed herself. But we were fine after that too. I kept her safe.” She threw up again and once she had rinsed her mouth with the glass of water Ianto had got for her she continued “Were fine for 8 years until some bastard hit her with their car. She was in a coma... 5 weeks and 4 days, I was with her all time. Social found out, they went to tell Dad and he'd already started - he'd been fired. Glad I wasn't home. And Becky woke up and they took her away. They said, said maybe, and then I argued and they said no.”

Ianto suddenly understood, why she had decided to drink that night even though she never drank normally but Lucy continued.

“Said I wasn’t good enough for her” she looked up at Ianto and he could see the tears down her face “It's her birthday and I'm not there, Yan. Maybe I’m really not good enough for her.”

He didn’t hesitate in pulling her close for a hug, “Don’t you dare say that Lu. You’re amazing, and you didn’t miss her birthday, you made her cake. Then you remembered she couldn’t have it and gave it to us. You’re an amazing sister and person and were thrown into a horrible situation but you coped. You looked after your mother and you were a mother to Becky and you were still at school. I’m not stupid, you could only have been 14 when Becky was born and you did it, I have no idea how young you were when you started looking after your mother but you still did it. You did what no one else could have done and that's on top of everything else in your life.”

“I really miss her Ianto.”

“I know you do. Now we need to sober you up and you are going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow.”

“nrrgh” She replied, “tired.” Now she had told him everything Lucy sagged against him again, and he could see she was about to fall asleep again.

“You need to eat first Lu” Ianto pointed out, as he gently pushed her off him so she was leaning against the toilet instead. “And I need to clean my room, there’s sick all over the floor. I’ll order Chinese, you clean yourself up. Are you going to be ok?” She nodded and he started to walk away.

“Love you Ianto.” he froze for a few seconds before continuing to walk away again, able to persuade himself that she was drunk and didn’t know what she was saying. He ignored the fact she seemed to be the kind of drunk that only spoke the truth, he didn’t want to have to think about it.

 

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

 

The next morning Lucy woke up, as Ianto turned the light on, with a groan.

"Off" She mumbled as she tried to pull her duvet over her face to block out as much of the hated light as possible. She tried not to think about how odd it was that Ianto was in her room as they both had agreed to the other's privacy and only went in when invited. It was at that point that she remembered that she had been drinking in Ianto's room the night before. She sat up suddenly and then her body complained and she collapsed back down onto the bed, Ianto laughed.

"Not so loud" She whispered.

"I've got paracetamol and I'm frying bacon for breakfast. Best cure in the world for a hangover, especially the first one." He said and Lucy was grateful that he was being quiet, "I've also sent a text to Jack saying you were ill in the night so you won't be in today."

As much as Lucy hated the idea of being weak she was grateful that she didn't have to face the team, Owen would never let her forget it and would do his best to be as loud as possible all day.

"Thanks." She replied

"No problem, but you do actually have to get out of bed, and I've removed all of my alcohol from the flat, just in case." She groaned again.

"The thought is making me sick. I don't drink Ianto, it was just a bad day."  
"I know." He sat down on the side of her bed and put a glass of water and some tablets on the side.

"What do you know?" Lucy asked immediately ignoring the hangover in her fear of what she had said while her inhibitions were lowered. "Ianto," She said seriously, "what did I say last night?"

"You spoke about Becky." Ianto had thought about not letting her know what she had said, but after seeing the panic on his face he knew that it wouldn't be fair to lie. Plus he was hoping that now he had a bit more of an idea of her life before Torchwood she might talk to him about it.

"What did I say?" Lucy repeated going pale

"You said that it was the first birthday of hers you've ever missed and..."

"I said a bit about Dad didn't I?" Lucy sagged.

"You mentioned the car hitting her as well." Ianto nodded

"God I was drunk."

"You were using one of my shirts as a teddy bear." Ianto laughed trying to lighten the mode

"Really?" She was glad to accept the change of conversation "Oh god."

"It was quite funny, you really didn't want to let go of it." He smirked, "my shirt clutched in one hand and a bottle of vodka in another, you looked like any other 24 year old."

"What like a drunk student?"

"Yup, like any other drunk student after a good night out."

"I think I prefer being a Torchwood agent most of the time, although I had started working on a degree with the open uni."

"What on?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Lucy quipped, Ianto raised an eyebrow and pulled the curtain open, "Noooo" Lucy flinched and dropped back into the bed and pulled the duvet over her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So there it is. Lucy has joined the Torchwood team. Just to let you know I've moved a few episodes around and worked out my own calendar of when things are happening.
> 
> Please feel free to ask me questions in your review and I'll do my best to reply to them, if I don't reply it's because it's a spoiler for the future.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 and I'll see you again next week for the first part of 'Everything Changes'.
> 
> Don't forget to REVIEW!  
> Rea


End file.
